Validity of screening tools for emotional problems in school children

Area of Science:

• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Psychological Assessment
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Emotional problems in school children can negatively impact academic performance.
• Effective screening tools are crucial for identifying these issues.
• Existing tools often rely on parental or teacher observations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the efficacy of a self-assessment tool, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), against a parental observation tool, the Childhood Psychopathology Measurement Schedule (CPMS).
• To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of GHQ and CPMS in identifying emotional problems in children.

Main Methods:

• A multistage random sampling of 218 school children aged 13-14 years.
• Administration of the six-item GHQ for self-assessment of emotional problems.
• Parental assessment using CPMS and a detailed clinical work-up for all participants.

Main Results:

• The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) exhibited high sensitivity and specificity when compared to the clinical interview.
• CPMS showed lower accuracy in identifying emotional problems relative to the clinical standard.

Conclusions:

• The GHQ is a superior screening instrument for detecting emotional difficulties in children aged 13-14 years.
• Self-assessment tools like GHQ offer a reliable alternative to observation-based methods.