The School Children Mental Health in Europe (SCMHE) Project: Design and First Results

Abstract

Background : The School Children Mental Health in Europe (SCMHE) project aims to build up a set of indicators to collect and monitor children's mental health in an efficient and comparable methodology across the EU countries. It concerns primary schools children aged 6 to 11 years a range where few data are available whereas school interventions are promising. Methods : Three informants were used: parents, teachers and children. In selecting instruments language, instruments were selected according to the easiness to translate them: SDQ (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) for parents and teachers and DI (Dominic Interactive). A two-step procedure was used: schools randomization then six children by class in each grade. Results : 9084 children from seven countries (Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Turkey) completed the Dominic Interactive in their own language. 6563 teachers and 6031 parents completed their questionnaire, and a total of 5574 interviews have been completed by the 3 informants. The participation rate of the children with parents in the participating schools was about 66.4%. As expected teachers report more externalised problems and less internalised problems than parents. Children report more internalised problems than parents and teachers. Boys have consistently more externalised problems than girls and this is the reverse for internalised problems. Combining the diverse informants and impairment levels children with problems requiring some sort of mental health care were about 9.9%: 76% did not see any mental health professional: 78.7% In Eastern countries 63.1% in Western Europe.

Evaluation of child development: beyond the neuromotor aspect

“…Several international entities such as the AAP, the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the School Children Mental Health in Europe (SCMHE) Project, and the World Health Organization (WHO), among others, have tried to reduce these barriers through the production of documents for the continuing education of pediatricians. 10,13,25,43,44 These difficulties are similar to those observed in the implementation of the use of screening tools used in child development monitoring, suggested by the AAP (2006). 10 One of the lessons learned during this process was that the use of screening tests should be routine in pediatric practice and need to cover the neuromotor, cognitive, and socioemotional developments.…”

Is time spent playing video games associated with mental health, cognitive and social skills in young children?

“…The present study included data collected in Germany, The Netherlands, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Details on country-specific sampling are provided elsewhere [13]. Briefly, approximately 45–50 schools were approached per country (a greater number of schools were approached in Germany and The Netherlands), with varying participation rates from 6.5 % in The Netherlands and 95.6 % in Romania.…”

Reliability, factor structure, and measurement invariance of the Dominic Interactive across European countries: Cross-country utility of a child mental health self-report.

“…Due to low parent participation rates compared to child participation rates across the sample, demographics are only available for a sub-sample of children and therefore representativeness cannot be adequately determined. Additional information about the sampling method and the sample composition was described in the final SCMHE report (Kovess et al, 2015). Research in all countries received ethical approval from appropriate authorities.…”