Academic Pediatrics
Volume 10, Issue 1 , Pages 41-47, January 2010

Socioeconomic Risk Factors for Mental Health Problems in 4–5-Year-Old Children: Australian Population Study

  • Elise Davis, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress correspondence to Elise Davis, PhD, McCaughey Centre, VicHealth Centre for the Promotion of Mental Health and Community Wellbeing, School of Population Health, Level 5, 207 Bouverie St, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.
    • ,
  • Michael G. Sawyer, PhD, MBBS
    • ,
  • Sing Kai Lo, PhD
    • ,
  • Naomi Priest, PhD
    • ,
  • Melissa Wake, MD

McCaughey Centre, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia (Dr Davis and Dr Priest); Research and Evaluation Unit, Women's and Children's Hospital, North Adelaide, South Australia (Dr Sawyer); The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong (Dr Lo); Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia (Dr Wake); Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia (Dr Wake); and Department of Pediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia (Dr Wake)

Received 30 October 2007; accepted 25 August 2009.

Objective

To describe the extent to which parent- and teacher-reported child mental health problems vary by different indicators of socioeconomic status.

Methods

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.

Results

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.

Conclusions

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.

Key Words: children, psychopathology, risk factors, socioeconomic status

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PII: S1876-2859(09)00273-3

doi:10.1016/j.acap.2009.08.007

Academic Pediatrics
Volume 10, Issue 1 , Pages 41-47, January 2010

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