Description:

This Indicator measures the proportion of childred aged 4-12 who had a borderline or abnormal total difficulties score in the Scottish Health Survey.

Source of Data:

The data for this indicator is drawn from a section of the Scottish Health Survey.

Information on the Scottish Health Survey can be found here.

Information on the “Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire” used to gather data for this indicator can be found here.

The social, emotional and behavioural development of children aged 4-12 has been measured via the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (Goodman 1997)  since 2003. The SDQ is a brief behavioural screening questionnaire designed for use with the 3-16 age group. The SDQ was completed by a parent on behalf of all children aged 4-12. 

The SDQ comprises 25 questions covering themes such as consideration, hyperactivity, malaise, mood, sociability, obedience, anxiety and unhappiness. It is used to measure five aspects of children's development: emotional symptoms; conduct problems; hyperactivity/inattention; peer relationship problems; and pro-social behaviour. 

A score was calculated for each of the five aspects, as well as an overall 'total difficulties' score which was generated by summing the scores from all the domains except pro-social behaviour. The total difficulties score ranged from zero to forty with a higher score indicating greater evidence of difficulties. There are established thresholds indicating 'normal' (score of 13 or less), 'borderline' (14-16) or 'abnormal' scores (17 or above). 

The total and individual SDQ domain scores all feature in the mental health indicators set for children. The indicators are the percentage of children with normal scores for the pro-social domain, and the percentages with abnormal/borderline scores in the other four domains and overall. All these figures are reported in the tables.

The measures reported combine four years, and therefore the measures are not independent from year to year.  This will mean that changes may take a number of years to become apparent.

Definitions:

Children: aged between 4 to 12.

Criteria for Change:

Performance is improving if the indicator decreases for three years in a row by at least 1 percentage point each year

Performance is worsening if the indicator increases for three years in a row by at least 1 percentage point each year.

Elsewise, performance maintains