Mental health problems are frequent among children and seems to predict mental disorders in adulthood.

The study aimed whether the gender differences affects the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) assessments performed by parents and teachers in Republic of Georgia.

In 2019 a cross sectional survey in four main cities of Georgia was conducted; Totally 8-10 y old 16654 children from 211 public schools were included. SDQ completed by parents and school teachers was used to determine emotional and behavioral problems among Georgian children.

16654 (74%) parents out of 22553 were agreed to participate in the study. 1565 (9.39%) children were rated screen positive in top five percentile by either parent or teacher or both of them. Cut-off scores for 99-95 percentiles (top 1-5%) was defined. Boys were more likely to be rated screen positive than girls, especially by teachers: parents rated screen positive 7.5% of females, teachers - 7.2%, while males 9.4% and 11.5% respectively. Pairwise correlation coefficients (0.53) revealed moderate correlations according to p-values (< 0.05) between scores and all correlations were statistically significant.

The study defined the cut-off scores of SDQ for 8-10 y old children and a gender differences in prevalence of mental health problems in Georgia. SDQ could be used in primary healthcare and school settings to identify children with special needs. This work was supported by Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG), grant - FR-18-304.

No significant relationships.

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is one of the most widely used screening instruments in child and adolescent psychiatry. Studies have shown that the parent is a better informant than the adolescent, both for externalising and internalising disorders (Goodman et al, 1997, 2000).

Aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of parent and adolescent reported internalising problems in outpatient child and adolescent psychiatry setting using SDQ and examine the differences between parent and adolescent reports.

The study group was 101 adolescents (11-17 y.o.) and their parents, in 2 outpatient psychiatric care centres in Latvia. Internalising problems were assessed using SDQ parent and self-report version. When analyzing the score, 3rd and 4th band were defined as “high”.

The mean age of adolescent population was 14,04 years (SD 1,96) and N=54 were female. 60,4% of parents and 52,5% of adolescents reported high level of peer problems, 63,4% of parents and 51,5% of adolescents reported high level of emotional problems. Parent and adolescent report results were concordant in two thirds of cases. Adolescents reported high emotional and peer problems in 9% and 14% of cases respectively, when their parents did not. And on the contrary - 22% of parents reported high level of internalising problems when the adolescent did not.

More than half of reports showed high levels of internalising problems. Every fifth parent reported a higher level of internalising problems than their adolescent. This agrees with previous findings that single informant (parent) reports might be more informative than multi-informant reports.

Although behavioural problems (e.g. anxiety, conduct, hyperactivity, peer problems) are known to be heritable both in early childhood and in adolescence, limited work has examined prediction across these ages, and none using a genetically informative sample.

We examined, first, whether parental ratings of behavioural problems (indexed by the Strengths and Difficulties questionnaire) at ages 4, 7, 9, 12, and 16 years were stable across these ages. Second, we examined the extent to which stability reflected genetic or environmental effects through multivariate quantitative genetic analysis on data from a large (n > 3000) population (UK) sample of monozygotic and dizygotic twins.

Behavioural problems in early childhood (age 4 years) showed significant associations with the corresponding behavioural problem at all subsequent ages. Moreover, stable genetic influences were observed across ages, indicating that biological bases underlying behavioural problems in adolescence are underpinned by genetic influences expressed as early as age 4 years. However, genetic and environmental innovations were also observed at each age.

These observations indicate that genetic factors are important for understanding stable individual differences in behavioural problems across childhood and adolescence, although novel genetic influences also facilitate change in such behaviours.

The mental examination of the adolescent patient should be maintained as the central and most reliable source of information regarding the suicidal adolescent. Mental health services planning of national suicide prevention programs should take into account these poor mother-adolescent agreement findings.

To determine the prevalence of psychosocial problems among Dutch children aged 8–12 years and studying its association with risk factors and quality of life.

This study was conducted within the framework of a community-based health study in the north-west region of the Netherlands. The cross-sectional study sample consisted of 2703 children (1392 boys and 1311 girls). Psychosocial problems and quality of life were measured with the extended version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and KIDSCREEN-10, respectively. Questionnaires and data about risk factors (parental education level, ethnicity, family structure, income, chronic diseases and life events) were completed by the parents or caregivers.

The prevalence of psychosocial problems (SDQ score ≥14) in the total sample was 10.4%. The prevalence was higher in boys compared with girls (13.9% v. 6.6%, OR = 2.28; 95% CI = 1.75–2.97). Boys had significantly more hyperactivity/inattention, conduct, peer relationship and prosocial behaviour problems compared with girls. Risk factors associated with psychosocial problems were: one or more chronic disease(s), life event(s), a low parental educational level (for boys only) and an income under a modal level. Psychosocial problems were significantly inverse related with quality of life in the total sample (rho = −0.47).

Psychosocial problems are common in children, especially among boys, and are inversely related with children's quality of life. The identified risk factors in this study can be useful for developing targeted prevention strategies aimed at children at high risk for psychosocial problems.