Screening for Emotional and Behavioral Problems of 5-11 Years Old School Children by Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires ( SDQ )

Original Research Article Emotional and behavioral problems in children have emerged as a public health problem in Developing countries. Only few studies are done on the issue. Published evidence emphasizes the benefits of early interventions to prevent behavioral and emotional problems and poor school performance. Understanding of the epidemiology of behavioral and emotional disorders in children is a prerequisite for developing management plan and prevention strategy. Standardized questionnaires for measuring psychopathological symptoms in children has been Developed. The Strength and Difficulties questionnaire is a useful instrument to aid clinicians in diagnosis and could be used as part of the initial assessment process. The aim of study was to screen 5-11 year old school children in Dhaka city for emotional and behavioral problems using Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). A crosssectional study conducted during the period of January 2010 to December 2010 among 196 school going children of schools of Dhaka city aged between 5 -11 years. A total of 235 students along with their parents were selected and 196 have been interviewed. In the study multistage sampling was adopted. Replacement of the non-responder student is taken from the same school. The Bengali version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was used for the interview of the parents of the selected children. Strength and difficulty score was generated based on standard scoring protocol. The individuals were categorized based on cut off used for individual domains as well as total difficulty score. Cross tabulation was done to assess association of disability level with socioeconomic variables. Through multivariate analysis the risk factor were assessed. The prevalence of such disorder was found to be quite higher among them, more than one in five (20.9%) children was found to have emotional and behavioral disorders as screened using the strength and difficulty questionnaire. In the children another 41.8% were with borderline difficulty score and 37.1% were with of normal range. Among male average total difficulty score was 16.55 ± 2.8, and among female average total difficulty score was 17.22 ± 3.5, No sex difference in total difficulty score or individual scale score was found following independent t test (P>.05). Domain wise difficulty prevalence suggests emotional problem in 23% children, Conduct problem in 20.9% children, Hyperactivity in 1.5% children, Peer problem in 22.4% children and Pro-social behavior in 54.1% children. None of the age, sex, and family income, number of children, father’s level of education and mother’s education appeared as a significant predictor of emotional and behavioral disorder in children of Dhaka city. However Mother’s occupational status appeared as a significant predictor of child’s emotional and behavioral disorder. In the conclusion, we can say, the prevalence of emotional and behavioral disorder was found to be quite high among school children of Dhaka city. The problems are equally prevalent in both sexes. Around three percent of the children had abnormality in three of the domains, around twelve percent had difficulty in two domains and one third had in one domain. Children of working mothers were found to be more liable to develop emotional and /or behavioral disturbance.