Childcare Providers’ Nominations of Preschool Children at Risk for Mental Health Problems: Does it Discriminate Well Compared to the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form (C-TRF)?

Kenneth Stensen,Stian Lydersen,Frode Stenseng,Jan Lance Wallander,Håvard Tveit,May Britt Drugli

doi:10.1080/00313831.2020.1869089

Abstract

ABSTRACT Childcare providers are vanguards in identifying children at risk for mental health problems. Thus, the aim of the current study was to investigate the accuracy of childcare providers’ nominations of children at risk for mental health problems against a well-established comparator, the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form. Findings from the present study, including 1430 children aged one to six years old and 169 childcare providers from 57 childcare centers, indicates that nominations in the form of concerns should be taken seriously and followed up with additional screening or assessment and consideration for referral. However, nominations also created a considerable portion of false positives. These results suggest that when childcare providers become concerned about a child, it may be beneficial to apply a psychometrically sound screening instrument to decrease the rate of false positive nominations. This may help childcare providers to act more promptly by confirming or discarding their initial concerns.

Highlights

Approximately 20% of all children experience mental health difficulties (Belfer 2008) and 13% meet the criteria for a psychiatric disorder (Polanczyk et al 2015)
When comparing the false positive group’s mean scores for internalizing (M = 5.76) and externalizing (M = 8.54) problems (Table 3) with the clinical cutoff values for the same scales (Table 1), the estimates indicate that, on average, the false positive cases would have to display approximately twice the symptom load to approach a clinical level on the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form (C-TRF)
The current study aimed to investigate, in essence, how false a false positive teacher nomination is for preschool children at risk for mental health problems and to compare the characteristics of those classified as false positive with those classified as true negative

Summary

Introduction

Approximately 20% of all children experience mental health difficulties (Belfer 2008) and 13% meet the criteria for a psychiatric disorder (Polanczyk et al 2015). Parents are the primary initiators of contact with health services when there are concerns about a child’s development (Ellingson et al 2004). The task of identifying children with emotional and behavioral difficulties has been carried out by pediatric practitioners in collaboration with. More attention should be directed towards preschool teachers’ perceptions of children’s difficulties (Poulou 2015) as their observational accuracy may be an important factor in connecting children in need of help with relevant mental health services (Berkhout et al 2012; Eklund et al 2009). Surprisingly little research has been carried out on the ability of preschool teachers to identify children with emotional and behavioral difficulties

Objectives

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion