Abstract
BACKGROUND: This study compared anxiety and depressive problems in adolescents with a mild to borderline intellectual disability in a residential treatment facility (MBID-RT) to those in the general community (MBID-GC). METHOD: Participants (N = 923, aged 11.9-19.3 years, M = 14.6 years, SD = 1.51, 42% girls) completed measures on anxiety and depressive problems. Part of this group (n = 155) participated twice, roughly 1 year apart. RESULTS: Adolescents in the MBID-RT subgroup reported statistically more anxiety and depressive problems (higher average scores, higher percentages above cut-off scores and higher percentage of comorbid anxiety and depressive symptoms). Over a 1-year period, anxiety and depressive symptoms decreased in the MBID-GC subgroup but not in the MBID-RT subgroup. CONCLUSIONS: Findings call attention to the high prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms in adolescents with MBID in general, and those in residential treatment in particular, especially when externalising problems may be on the foreground.