Using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to Aid in the Identification of LookedAfter Child

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Using the Strengths and Difficulties
Questionnaire to Aid in the Identification of
Looked-After Childrens Mental Health Needs

• Robyn A. Marquis, Marie-Pierre Paquet, Robert
  J. Flynn

University of Ottawa Centre for Research on
Educational and Community Services
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Overview

• Introduction Foster children mental health
• Proposed research
• Results of current study
• Conclusions
• Questions comments

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Introduction Foster Children Mental Health

• Child maltreatment associated with pervasive
  effects on subsequent development
• More young people coming into care with complex
  needs than previous generations
• National commission on Family Foster Care
• children coming into care have extraordinary
  health, mental health, behavioural and
  developmental needs

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• More young people in care who have complex needs
  than previous generations
• Prevalence of mental health difficulties among
  looked-after children varies
• Strong association between young persons
  behavioural, emotional problems and placement
  instability

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• Inattention to the mental health needs of
  looked-after children documented since 1980s
• Early detection of social, behavioural, and
  psychological problems priority
• Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

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Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

• SDQ (Goodman, 1997)
• 25-item questionnaire ages 3 to 16 years
• 5 scales
• 4 categories of problems
• 1 category of strength
• Items for each scale selected based on
  classification concepts of child psychopathology
  in the DSM-IV and ICD-10

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SDQ in Child Welfare Research

• SDQ increasingly being used within child welfare
  to screen psychological adjustment
• Small number of published studies
• Callaghan et al (2004) Iversen et al (2007)
  Minnis et al (2006) Teggart Menary (2005)
• SDQ can be used to improve the detection and
  treatment of emotional and behavioural problems
  among looked-after children

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Proposed Research

• Purpose
• To investigate the strengths and difficulties of
  looked-after children in ON, Canada
• To compare the strengths and difficulties of
  looked-after children in Ontario with same-age
  British and American general population youth

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Participants

• Convenience sample
• N 492 aged 11 to 15 years
• Year 5 (2005-2006) OnLAC project
• 43 female 57 male (mean age 13.2)
• Current Placement 14.4 Group home 85.6
  Foster Home

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Measures SDQ

• SDQ part of AAR-C2 of the OnLAC project
• Satisfactory reliability and validity (Goodman,
  2001)
• Able to discriminate between community and
  clinical samples (Goodman, 1997 Goodman Scott,
  1999)
• Sensitivity of 85 and specificity of 80 vs.
  independent diagnosis of a clinician (Goodman,
  Ford, Corbin, Meltzer, 2004)

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• When SDQ scored
• Low Difficulties Scores below the 80th
  percentile
• Borderline/Medium Difficulties Scores between
  the 80th and 90th percentiles
• High Difficulties Scores above the 90th
  percentile
• Borderline High Difficulties categories high
  risk for meeting criteria for a psychiatric
  diagnosis (Goodman, 1997)

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Results

• Comparison between OnLAC youth
• and
• general population British youth
• and
• general population American youth
• Scores in the Borderline and High Difficulties
  bands on the subscales and Total Difficulties

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Results
Emotional Symptoms Score
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Conduct Problems Score
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Hyperactivity-Inattention Problems Score
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Peer Problems Score
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Prosocial Behaviour Scores
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Total Difficulties Scores
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Conclusions Implications

• Ontario children living in out-of-home care
• Have a high level of disturbance
• Are under-represented on prosocial behaviour
• The results emphasize
• SDQ as screening instrument
• the importance of engaging in early detection of
  looked-after childrens mental health needs

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Limitations

• OnLAC specific
• File-based, archival information
• No professional follow-up

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Question or Comments?
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References

• Callaghan, J., Young, B., Pace, F., Vostanis,
  P. (2004). Evaluation of a new mental health
• service for looked after children. Clinical
  Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 9, 130-148.
• Goodman, R. (1997). The Strengths and
  Difficulties Questionnaire A research note.
  Journal of
• Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38, 581-586.
• Goodman, R. (2001). Psychometric properties of
  the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
• (SDQ). Journal of the American Academy of
  Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 1337-
• 1345.
• Goodman, R., Ford, T., Corbin, T., Meltzer, H.
  (2004). Using the Strengths and Difficulties
• Questionnaire (SDQ) multi-informant algorithm
  to screen looked-after children for
• psychiatric disorders. European Child
  Adolescent Psychiatry, 13, II/25II/31.
• Goodman, R., Scott, S. (1999). Comparing the
  Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and
• the Child Behavior Checklist Is small
  beautiful? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology,
• 27, 17-24.
• Iversen, A. C., Jakobsen, R., Havik, T., Hysing,
  M., Stormark, K. M. (2007). Mental health
• problems among child welfare clients living at
  home. Child Care in Practice, 13, 387-399.
• Teggart, T. Menary, J. (2005). An investigation
  of the mental health needs of children looked
• after by Craigvon and Banbridge health and
  social services trust. Child Care in Practice,
• 11, 39-49.