Clinical validity of the Me and My School questionnaire: a self-report mental health measure for children and adolescents

Chinese Medicine

Miranda Wolpert³  Panos Vostanis²  Peter Fonagy¹  Jessica Deighton³  Praveetha Patalay³ 

[1] Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK;The Greenwood Institute of Child Health, Leicester University, Westcotes House, Westcotes Drive, Leicester LE3 0QU, UK;Evidence Based Practice Unit (EBPU), University College London and the Anna Freud Centre, 21 Maresfield Gardens, London NW3 5SU, UK

关键词: Screening;    Me and My School;    Validity;    Self-report;    Children;    Mental health;   

Others  :  790415
DOI  :  10.1186/1753-2000-8-17

 received in 2014-03-06, accepted in 2014-06-06,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

The Me and My School Questionnaire (M&MS) is a self-report measure for children aged eight years and above that measures emotional difficulties and behavioural difficulties, and has been previously validated in a community sample. The present study aimed to assess its clinical sensitivity to justify its utility as a screening tool in schools.

Methods

Data were collected from service-users (n = 91, 8–15 years) and accompanying parent/carer in outpatient mental health services in England. A matched community sample (N = 91) were used to assess the measure’s ability to discriminate between low- and high-risk samples.

Results

Receiver operating curves (area under the curve, emotional difficulties = .79; behavioural difficulties = .78), mean comparisons (effect size, emotional difficulties d = 1.17, behavioural difficulties = 1.12) and proportions above clinical thresholds indicate that the measure satisfactorily discriminates between the samples. The scales have good internal reliability (emotional difficulties α = .84; behavioural difficulties α = .82) and cross-informant agreement with parent-reported symptoms is comparable to existing measures (r = .30).

Conclusion

The findings of this study indicate that the M&MS sufficiently discriminates between high-risk (clinic) and low-risk (community) samples, has good internal reliability, compares favourably with existing self-report measures of mental health and has comparable levels of agreement between parent-report and self-report to other measures. Alongside existing validation of the M&MS, these findings justify the measures use as a self-report screening tool for mental health problems in community settings for children aged as young as 8 years.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Patalay et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 参考文献 】

• [1]Wolpert M, Aitken J, Syrad H, Munroe M, Saddington C, Trustam E, Bradley J, Nolas SM, Lavis P, Jones A: Review and Recommendations for National Policy for England for the use of Mental Health Outcome Measures With Children and Young People. London: Department for Children, Schools and Families. London: Department for Children, Schools and Families; 2008.
• [2]Verhulst FC, van der Ende J: Assessment Scales in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Informa UK: Abingdon; 2006.
• [3]UK Government: Children Act. Chapter 31. London: The Stationary Office; 2004.
• [4]Nations U: UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. 1989.
• [5]Kennedy I: Getting it Right for Children and Young People: Overcoming Cultural Barriers in the NHS so as to Meet Their Needs. London: Department of Health; 2010.
• [6]Sharp C, Goodyer IM, Croudace T: The Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ): a unidimensional item response theory and categorical data factor analysis of self-report ratings from a community sample of 7-through 11-year-old children. J Abnorm Child Psychol 2006, 34:379-391.
• [7]Chorpita BF, Yim L, Moffitt C, Umemoto LA, Francis SE: Assessment of symptoms of DSM-IV anxiety and depression in children: a revised child anxiety and depression scale. Behav Res Ther 2000, 38:835-855.
• [8]Levitt JM, Saka N, Romanelli LH, Hoagwood K: Early identification of mental health problems in schools: the status of instrumentation. J Sch Psychol 2007, 45:163-191.
• [9]Deighton J, Tymms P, Vostanis P, Belsky J, Fonagy P, Brown A, Martin A, Patalay P, Wolpert M: The development of a school-based measure of child mental health. J Psychoeduc Assess 2013, 31:247-257.
• [10]Terwee CB, Bot SDM, de Boer MR, van der Windt DWM, Knol DL, Dekker J, Bouter LM, De Vet HCW: Quality criteria were proposed for measurement properties of health status questionnaires. J Clin Epidemiol 2007, 60:34-42.
• [11]Scientific Advisory Committee of the Medical Outcomes Trust: Assessing health status and quality of life instruments: attributes and review criteria. Qual Life Res 2002, 11:193-205.
• [12]Anastasi A, Urbina S: Psychological Testing. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall; 1997.
• [13]Green H, McGinnity A, Meltzer H, Ford T, Goodman R: Mental Health of Children and Young People in Great Britain, 2004. Basingstoke: Crown; 2005.
• [14]Leuven E, Sianesi B: PSMATCH2: Stata Module to Perform Full Mahalanobis and Propensity Score Matching, Common Support Graphing, and Covariate Imbalance Testing. 2003. Version revised 19 July 2012
• [15]Patalay P, Deighton J, Fonagy P, Wolpert M: Equivalence of paper and computer survey formats of a child self-report mental health measure. Eur J Psychol Assess 2014. Advance online publication. doi:10.1027/1015-5759/a000206
• [16]Goodman R, Meltzer H, Bailey V: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: a pilot study on the validity of the self-report version. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 1998, 7:125-130.
• [17]Goodman R: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: a research note. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 1997, 38:581-586.
• [18]Zweig MH, Campbell G: Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) plots: a fundamental evaluation tool in clinical medicine. Clin Chem 1993, 39:561-577.
• [19]Wolpert M, Deighton J, Patalay P, Martin A, Fitzgerald-Yau N, Demir E, Fugard A, Belsky J, Fielding A, Fonagy P, Frederikson N: Me and my school: Findings from the National Evaluation of Targeted Mental Health in Schools. Department for Education: Nottingham; 2011.
• [20]Improving Access to Psychological Therapies: Children and Young People’s IAPT Tracking Outcomes Resource Pack. London: Department of Health; 2012.
• [21]Department of Health: Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS. London: Crown; 2010.
• [22]Schmidt LJ, Garratt AM, Fitzpatrick R: Instruments for Children and Adolescents: A Review. London: Department of Health; 2001.
• [23]Burns BJ, Costello EJ, Angold A, Tweed D, Stangl D, Farmer EMZ, Erkanli A: Children’s mental health service Use across service sectors. Health Aff 1995, 14:147-159.
• [24]Ford T, Goodman R, Meltzer H: The British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey 1999: the prevalence of DSM-IV disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2003, 42:1203-1211.
• [25]Achenbach TM, McConaughy SH, Howell CT: Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: implications of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity. Psychol Bull 1987, 101:213-232.