RESEARCH ARTICLE
The School Children Mental Health in Europe (SCMHE) Project: Design and First Results
Viviane Kovess *, 1, Mauro Giovanni Carta 2, Ondine Pez 1, Adina Bitfoi 3, Ceren Koç 4, Dietmar Goelitz 5, Rowella Kuijpers 6, Sigita Lesinskiene 7, Zlatka Mihova 8, Roy Otten 9
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2015Volume: 11
Issue: Suppl 1: M7
First Page: 113
Last Page: 123
Publisher ID: CPEMH-11-113
DOI: 10.2174/1745017901511010113
Article History:
Received Date: 15/9/2014Revision Received Date: 3/10/2014
Acceptance Date: 5/10/2014
Electronic publication date: 26 /2/2015
Collection year: 2015
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
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.
