Mental health screening for children in care using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Brief Assessment Checklists: Guidance from three national studies

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dc.contributor.authorGoemans A
dc.contributor.authorHahne AS
dc.contributor.authorGieve M
dc.contributor.authorTarren-Sweeney, Michael
dc.date.accessioned2022-10-25T02:14:48Z
dc.date.available2022-10-25T02:14:48Z
dc.date.issued2019en
dc.date.updated2022-08-17T23:52:00Z
dc.description.abstractAlthough children residing in statutory out-of-home care and those adopted from care are more likely than not to have mental health difficulties requiring clinical intervention or support, their difficulties often remain undetected. Children’s agencies have a duty of care to identify those child clients who require therapeutic and other support services, without regard to the availability of such services. The present article proposes a first-stage mental health screening procedure (calibrated for high sensitivity) for children and adolescents (ages 4–17) in alternative care, which children’s agencies can implement without clinical oversight using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and Brief Assessment Checklists (BAC). The screening procedure was derived from analyses of BAC, SDQ, and “proxy SDQ” scores obtained in three national studies of children and adolescents residing in alternative care (Australia, the Netherlands, and England). The SDQ and BAC demonstrated moderate to high screening accuracy across a range of clinical case criteria—the SDQ being slightly better at predicting general mental health problems and the BAC slightly better at predicting attachment- and trauma-related problems. Accurate first-stage screening is achieved using either the SDQ or the BAC alone, with recommended cut points of 10 (i.e., positive screen is 10 or higher) for the SDQ and 7 for the BAC. Greater accuracy is gained from using the SDQ and BAC in parallel, with positive screens defined by an SDQ score of 11 or higher or a BAC score of 8 or higher. Agencies and post-adoption support services should refer positive screens for comprehensive mental health assessment by clinical services.en
dc.identifier.citationTarren-Sweeney M, Goemans A, Hahne AS, Gieve M (2019). Mental health screening for children in care using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Brief Assessment Checklists: Guidance from three national studies. Developmental Child Welfare. 1(2). 177-196.en
dc.identifier.doihttp://doi.org/10.1177/2516103219829756
dc.identifier.issn2516-1032
dc.identifier.issn2516-1040
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10092/104606
dc.languageen
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherSAGE Publicationsen
dc.rightsAll rights reserved unless otherwise stateden
dc.rights.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10092/17651en
dc.subject.anzsrcFields of Research::42 - Health sciences::4203 - Health services and systems::420313 - Mental health servicesen
dc.subject.anzsrcFields of Research::42 - Health sciences::4206 - Public health::420601 - Community child healthen
dc.subject.anzsrcFields of Research::52 - Psychology::5201 - Applied and developmental psychology::520101 - Child and adolescent developmenten
dc.subject.anzsrcFields of Research::52 - Psychology::5203 - Clinical and health psychology::520302 - Clinical psychologyen
dc.subject.anzsrcFields of Research::44 - Human society::4409 - Social work::440902 - Counselling, wellbeing and community servicesen
dc.titleMental health screening for children in care using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Brief Assessment Checklists: Guidance from three national studiesen
dc.typeJournal Articleen
uc.collegeFaculty of Health
uc.departmentSchool of Health Sciences
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