The Development of a School-Based Measure of Child Mental Health

Abstract

Early detection of child mental health problems in schools is critical for implementing strategies for prevention and intervention. The development of an effective measure of mental health and well-being for this context must be both empirically sound and practically feasible. This study reports the initial validation of a brief self-report measure for child mental health suitable for use with children as young as 8 years old (“Me & My School” [M&MS]). After factor analysis, and studies of measurement invariance, 2 subscales emerged: emotional difficulties and behavioral difficulties. These 2 subscales were highly correlated with corresponding constructs of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and showed correlations with attainment, deprivation, and educational needs similar to ones obtained between these demographic measures and the SDQ. Results suggest that this school-based self-report measure is psychometrically sound, and has the potential of contributing to school mental health surveys, evaluation of interventions, and recognition of mental health problems within schools.

Exploring the relationship between quality of life and mental health problems in children: implications for measurement and practice

“…Students responded to each item by endorsing the response options "never", "sometimes" or "always". Validation studies for this measure demonstrate robust psychometric properties [17,18], and internal consistency for the two subscales was high in the current study (internalising α = 0.76, externalising α = 0.79).…”

“…Participants were considered to be at risk of mental health problems if they scored above the 'borderline' cutoff for the subscales (score of 10 or above for the internalising subscale, score of 6 or above for the externalising subscale) [17]. This resulted in participants falling into one of four categories: 'no problems' (below cutoff for both subscales), 'internalising problems' (above cutoff for internalising subscale only), 'externalising problems' (above cutoff for externalising subscale only) or 'internalising and externalising problems (above cutoff for both subscales).…”

“…Mental health problems were assessed using the Me and My School Questionnaire [17,18], which consists of a 10-item emotional difficulties subscale (e.g. "I worry a lot") and a 6-item behavioural difficulties subscale (e.g.…”

Unpacking the associations between heterogeneous externalising symptom development and academic attainment in middle childhood

“…Responses were summed to create a total behavioural difficulties score, with higher scores indicating greater difficulties. The scale has an at-risk cut-off score of 6 [22], with 18.1, 15.1 and 13.7 % of the sample scoring above cut-off scores at each time point, respectively.…”

“…Externalising symptoms were measured using the behavioural difficulties subscale of the Me and My School questionnaire [22,23], a 6-item self-report scale (e.g., 'I hit out when I'm angry') with three response options: never, sometimes, always. Responses were summed to create a total behavioural difficulties score, with higher scores indicating greater difficulties.…”