Background
Early detection of mental health problems in childhood is important. However, studies on screening instruments for preschool children are rare. The aim of this study was to validate the Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social‐Emotional (ASQ:SE) with teacher reports and examine its screening accuracy in a preschool population.
Methods
A total of 1428 children, aged 18 months – 5 years, attending child‐care centers were recruited in Norway. Their teachers completed a survey including the ASQ:SE and the Caregiver‐Teacher Report Form (C‐TRF). The Spearman's correlation was calculated for the convergence between the ASQ:SE and the C‐TRF and the screening accuracy of the ASQ:SE was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis with the criterion of a score at or above the 90th percentile for the C‐TRF total problem score.
Results
The Spearman's correlation between the total scores for the ASQ:SE and the C‐TRF were from .49 to .72. The ROC analyses demonstrated that the ASQ:SE had a promising ability to classify children at risk based on the C‐TRF criterion with AUC ranging from .87 to .96 for the different forms. The ASQ:SE generally demonstrated high specificity across all forms and some forms (from age 30 months upwards) produced both high sensitivity and high specificity using the selected cutoff values.
Conclusions
The ASQ:SE could serve as a good starting point for screening for social‐emotional problems among children in child‐care centers. The 30‐ to 60‐month ASQ:SE forms exhibit promising psychometric properties and may prove useful for early detection. The 18‐ to 24‐month ASQ:SE forms demonstrate more limited efficacy in detecting children at risk.
Indre konsistens: fra alfa til omega?
MEDISIN OG TALLKenneth Stensen er ph.d. i medisin og helsevitenskap, master i psykologi og førsteamanuensis ved Regionalt kunnskapssenter for barn og unge -psykisk helse og barnevern (RKBU Midt-Norge) ved Institu for psykisk helse, NTNU. Forfa eren har fylt ut ICMJE-skjemaet og oppgir ingen interessekonflikter.
Identification attempts in populations with a low prevalence of problems usually result in a considerable number of false positives. Thus, the aim of the current study was to investigate the false positive rate following nomination of developmental concerns by preschool teachers and the reasons for which teachers raise developmental concerns about children who display non-clinical levels of mental health problems.A total of 1430 children aged 1 to 6 years in Norwegian childcare centers were classified as true positive, false positive, true negative, or false negative by comparing preschool teachers’ nomination with their ratings on the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form, resulting in 127 (9%) false positives and 1142 (80%) true negatives.Compared to the true negative group, the false positive group received significantly higher scores on internalizing problems, externalizing problems than true negatives, conflict and significantly lower scores on closeness. Children’s internalizing and externalizing problems and age were the main factors that increased the likelihood of teachers raising concerns, while increased closeness in the teacher-child relationship reduced the likelihood of being nominated. Children’s gender and conflict level were not significant when adjusting for other factors.These findings suggest that preschool teachers’ concerns about children’s development should not be discarded as the false positive group did show elevated levels of problem behavior and poorer teacher-child relationship compared to the true negative group. Scrutinizing concerns in collaboration with parents and other mental health professionals may be beneficial to ensure healthy development for children with elevated problem levels.
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