McCaughey Centre, University of Melbourne, Australia.
Acad Pediatr. 2010 Jan-Feb;10(1):41-7. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2009.08.007.
To describe the extent to which parent- and teacher-reported child mental health problems vary by different indicators of socioeconomic status.
Participants were 4-5-year-old children in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Parents (N = 4968) and teacher (N = 3245) completed the 3-4-year-old version of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Parents also reported the socioeconomic indicators of income, education, employment, and family composition (1- vs 2-parent families). Logistic regression models were used to predict SDQ total difficulties and each of the 4 SDQ subscales problems, as reported by parents and by teacher, and considered all putative socioeconomic status (SES) predictor variables simultaneously.
The proportions of children scoring in the abnormal range varied according to SES indicator and mental health subscale. All of the SES indicators independently predicted parent-reported child mental health problems, although odds ratios were generally small to moderate (1.2 to 2.4), and not all reached statistical significance. Low income and parent education showed larger associations than sole parenthood or unemployment. The pattern for teachers was similar, though less consistent. Behavioral problems showed stronger associations with social disadvantage than emotional problems.
Research examining pathways to young children's mental health should include diverse measures of SES, particularly of family income and education. The fact that mental health problems were most strongly associated with parent education and income should be of interest to policy makers because education and income reflect investments in the lives of our participants' parents during their own childhood and adolescence.
描述父母和教师报告的儿童心理健康问题在多大程度上因不同的社会经济地位指标而有所不同。
参与者为纵向澳大利亚儿童研究（LSAC）中的 4-5 岁儿童。父母（N=4968）和教师（N=3245）完成了 3-4 岁版的长处与困难问卷（SDQ）。父母还报告了收入、教育、就业和家庭构成（单亲家庭与双亲家庭）等社会经济指标。使用逻辑回归模型预测了父母和教师报告的 SDQ 总分困难以及 4 个 SDQ 子量表的问题，同时考虑了所有假定的社会经济地位（SES）预测变量。
根据 SES 指标和心理健康子量表，得分处于异常范围的儿童比例有所不同。所有 SES 指标均独立预测了父母报告的儿童心理健康问题，尽管优势比通常较小到中等（1.2 至 2.4），并非所有都达到统计学意义。低收入和父母教育与单亲家庭或失业相比，与子女心理健康问题的关联更大。教师的模式类似，但一致性较低。行为问题与社会劣势的关联比情绪问题更强。
研究儿童心理健康的途径的研究应包括 SES 的多种衡量指标，特别是家庭收入和教育。心理健康问题与父母教育和收入的关联最为密切，这应该引起政策制定者的兴趣，因为教育和收入反映了参与者父母在自己的童年和青少年时期对自己生活的投资。
