Clinical validity of the Me and My School questionnaire: a self-report mental health measure for children and adolescents



Patalay, Praveetha ORCID: 0000-0002-5341-3461, Deighton, Jessica, Fonagy, Peter, Vostanis, Panos and Wolpert, Miranda
(2014) Clinical validity of the Me and My School questionnaire: a self-report mental health measure for children and adolescents. CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY AND MENTAL HEALTH, 8 (1). 17-.

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Abstract

<h4>Background</h4>The Me and My School Questionnaire (M&MS) is a self-report measure for children aged eight years and above that measures emotional difficulties and behavioural difficulties, and has been previously validated in a community sample. The present study aimed to assess its clinical sensitivity to justify its utility as a screening tool in schools.<h4>Methods</h4>Data were collected from service-users (n = 91, 8-15 years) and accompanying parent/carer in outpatient mental health services in England. A matched community sample (N = 91) were used to assess the measure's ability to discriminate between low- and high-risk samples.<h4>Results</h4>Receiver operating curves (area under the curve, emotional difficulties = .79; behavioural difficulties = .78), mean comparisons (effect size, emotional difficulties d = 1.17, behavioural difficulties = 1.12) and proportions above clinical thresholds indicate that the measure satisfactorily discriminates between the samples. The scales have good internal reliability (emotional difficulties α = .84; behavioural difficulties α = .82) and cross-informant agreement with parent-reported symptoms is comparable to existing measures (r = .30).<h4>Conclusion</h4>The findings of this study indicate that the M&MS sufficiently discriminates between high-risk (clinic) and low-risk (community) samples, has good internal reliability, compares favourably with existing self-report measures of mental health and has comparable levels of agreement between parent-report and self-report to other measures. Alongside existing validation of the M&MS, these findings justify the measures use as a self-report screening tool for mental health problems in community settings for children aged as young as 8 years.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Mental health, Children, Self-report, Validity, Me and My School, Screening
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 12 Jul 2016 09:35
Last Modified: 19 Jan 2023 07:34
DOI: 10.1186/1753-2000-8-17
Open Access URL: http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/752/art%25...
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URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3002260