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CHAPTER 5 90 children’s psychosocial problems in these associations. We assessed whether children’s psychosocial problems acted as a moderator, meaning that the associations only apply to children with psychosocial problems, or as a mediator, meaning that the associations occur indirectly through the child’s psychosocial problems. We compared a group of children enroled in psychosocial care with a group not enroled in psychosocial care. METHODS Study design We obtained data on a sample of children enroled in preventive child health care, and child and adolescent social care and mental health care due to psychosocial problems (care sample) and on a sample of children from the same catchment area who were not enroled in psychosocial care (community sample). We used data from the first measurement wave of a large prospective cohort study called TakeCare which is being conducted by the Collaborative Centre on Care for Children and Youth (C4Youth) and is designed to investigate the trajectories and outcomes of children aged 4-18 receiving psychosocial care in one Dutch region. The design was assessed by the Medical Ethics Committee of the University Medical Center Groningen and approved without needing full assessment. Informed consent was obtained from all participating respondents. Sample and procedure Parents/caregivers and their children when aged 12 and over were invited to participate in TakeCare between April 2011 and June 2013. For the care sample 2,664 children and their parents were recruited via the main psychosocial care organizations for children in the North-East of the Netherlands, that is preventive child health care, child and adolescent social care and child and adolescent mental health care. In the Dutch care system, children can access psychosocial care via either their general practitioner, the office for youth care or preventive child health care. Children can then be referred to more specialized care, that is either child and adolescent social care, i.e. mostly provided by child and adolescent workers and social workers, or child and adolescent mental health care, i.e. mostly provided by child psychologists and psychiatrists. In addition, doctors and nurses in preventive child health care may also provide light parenting support, as may general practitioners [36]. Children with insufficient understanding of Dutch, living outside the Northern region, or following special education because of intellectual disability were excluded ( N =223). Of the eligible 2,441 respondents, some declined the invitation to participate in the study by filling out the opting-out form ( N =533); 1,382 participated, i.e. either the child and/or the parent (response 56.6%).