The Pathway of Internalizing and Externalizing Problems from Childhood to Adolescence: A Prospective Study from Age 7 to 14–16 in Korea

This study prospectively investigated developmental psychopathology pathway from the age of 7 to ages 14–16. The subjects
(N = 1,857) were evaluated using the Korean version of the Child Behavior Checklist and reassessed using the Korean Youth
Self Report. In path analyses, total problems, externalizing problems, and internalizing problems in childhood associated
significantly with problems in adolescence. In particular, childhood externalizing problems associated with adolescent externalizing
problems, for both genders. However, our results differ from those of previous studies in that internalizing problems showed
a restrictive stability by gender and in that early externalizing problems correlated negatively with later internalizing
problems for girls. In the syndrome scales analyses, we confirmed that some syndromes showed heterotypic pathways, despite
the general continuity of the developmental psychopathology. The importance of Anxiety/Depression and Attention problems in
childhood suggested that adolescent difficulties are a consequence of an accumulation of such risk factors.