This study was designed to elucidate problems caused by children who had been admitted to a residential care facility for children and by the guardians of the children as well as to elucidate the relationships between abnormal behaviors of children on admission to the facility and problems faced by or caused by their guardians. Information on 867 children (463 boys and 404 girls) who had been admitted and discharged from a residential care facility for children in Hokkaido between 1 946 and 1 997 was obtained from staff of the facility. Descriptive statistics was first used to analyze all items. Next, the chi-squared test was used to determine whether the behavior of children on admission to the facility was normal or abnormal by focusing on problems faced by or caused by their guardians at that time. The most frequent problem related to difficulty in child-raising faced by guardians at the time of admission of children to the facility was absence of a spouse in the home, and the second-most frequent problem was low income. Abuse-related problems caused by guardians were (in order of frequency) indolence-related problems such as child neglect, physical abuse, psychological abuse and sexual abuse. Sickness-related problems were (in order of frequency) mental disorders and alcoholic abuse. At the time of admission, 54.4% of the children were judged to have abnormal behavior and 45.6% of the children were judged to have no abnormal behavior. The abnormal behaviors were (in order of frequency) larceny, other behavioral problems, poor scholastic achievement, and running away from home. On discharge, 40.9% of the children were judged to have abnormal behavior and 59.1% of the children were judged to have no abnormal behavior. The abnormal behaviors were (in order of frequency) larceny, run away with money, other behavioral problems, and refusal to go to school. The results of analysis of the correlation between abnormal behavior of children on admission to the facility and problems with their guardians showed that a larger number of boys in the "abnormal behavior" group than in the "no abnormal behavior" group were in families in which the guardians had or caused problems, including (in order of frequency) absence of a spouse, physical abuse, indolence-related problems such as child neglect, problems other than mental disorders requiring long-term care, alcoholic abuse, and other problems. The results of analysis also showed that a larger number of girls in the "abnormal behavior" group than in the "no abnormal behavior" group were in families in which the guardians had or caused problems, including psychological abuse, indolence-related problems such as child neglect, and other problems.
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