Parents' and Childcare Teachers' Agreement on Mental Health Problems, Psychosocial Ressources and Need for Action

Abstract

Parents' and Childcare Teachers' Agreement on Mental Health Problems, Psychosocial Ressources and Need for Action Young Children with mental health problems rarely receive professional help. Recognising a problem is one key factor for mental health care utilisation in kindergarten age. In this study psychosocial problems and ressources of 255 children (age 3,0-6,6 years) were assessed by parents and childcare teachers with the instrument "Verhaltensskalen für das Kindergartenalter" (VSK, Koglin u. Petermann, 2016). Subjective need for action was also measured. Teachers announced a need for action in 19.8 % of the children, while parents did so for 17.3 % of the children, but they agreed only for 18.9 % of these children. So agreement on need for action was low (κ = .16). Agreement was also low for psychosocial problems (Median ICC = .32), and very low with respect to the borderline/clinical range (κ = .13). No agreement was found for psychosocial ressources. Results underline the importance for Early Education and Care professionals to cooperate with institutions like social-pediatric centers to avoid blind spots in the identification of mental health problems in preschool age.