Combined Effects of Mother’s, Father’s and Teacher’s Psychological Distress on Schoolchildren’s Mental Health Symptoms

Figures & data

Table 1 Number of GHQs Completed by the Mothers, Fathers and Teachers of 8488 Schoolchildren

	N	%
GHQ completed by three adults for 8488 schoolchildren
Father (N=8488)	7629	89.88
Mother (N=8488)	7636	89.96
Teacher (N=311)	269	86.5
Number of children with completed GHQ from mother, father and teacher
0	84	0.99
1	425	5.01
2	1806	21.28
3	6173	72.73
Number of children with mental health symptoms screened by SDQ among 6173 schoolchildren
Abnormal symptoms	1642	26.6
Abnormal symptom + Impact score ≥1	765	12.39
Abnormal symptom + Impact score ≥2	530	8.59

Note: The data on 6173 children with GHQ information completed by all three adults (bold) were used for subsequent analyses.

Table 2 Relationships of Demographic Characteristics with Mental Health Among 6173 Schoolchildren

	N	%	OR	95% CI
Male student	3000	48.60	1.56	1.34	1.82
Urban area	3102	50.25	1.12	0.96	1.31
Age
6–10	2231	36.14	1.00
11–14	2492	40.37	1.77	1.47	2.13
15–17	1447	23.44	1.80	1.46	2.22
Maternal education
Primary	1010	16.36	1.00
Junior	2644	42.83	0.67	0.54	0.82
Senior	1638	26.53	0.61	0.48	0.79
College	883	14.30	0.43	0.31	0.59
Divorced or reorganized family	426	6.90	2.46	1.91	3.18
Single child	4461	72.27	0.88	0.74	1.06
Family income
Low	724	11.73	1.00
Middle	3820	61.88	0.85	0.68	1.08
High	1629	26.39	0.80	0.62	1.04
Left mother or father	910	14.74	1.22	0.99	1.50
Parents with psychiatric disorder	305	4.94	1.94	1.45	2.60
Adults with mental health problems (GHQ≥3)
Mother	1058	17.14	2.30	1.93	2.73
Father	910	14.74	2.08	1.73	2.50
Teacher	1965	31.83	1.18	1.01	1.39
Number of three caretakers with mental health problems (GHQ≥3)
0	3119	50.53	1.00
1	2322	37.62	1.39	1.17	1.66
2	585	9.48	2.69	2.13	3.39
3	147	2.38	3.88	2.65	5.67
Anyone (≥1)	3054	49.47	1.72	1.47	2.01

Table 3 Standardized Partial Correlation Coefficients Between the GHQ Scores

	Father GHQ	Teacher GHQ	Parent-Rated	Teacher-Rated	Student-Rated
	Scores	Scores	SDQ Scores	SDQ Scores	SDQ Scores
Mother GHQ scores	0.38	−0.01	0.28	0.05	0.15
	<0.01	0.63	<0.01	<0.01	<0.01
Father GHQ scores		−0.02	0.19	0.06	0.12
		0.27	<0.01	<0.01	<0.01
Teacher GHQ scores			0.01	0.07	0.03
			0.43	<0.01	0.13

Note: Adjusted for age, area, gender, parental education, income, single child, working outside.

Table 4 Multiple Regression Analysis of Factors Associated with Mental Health Problems Among Chinese Schoolchildren (n = 6173)

	OR	95% CI
Age group (ref=7–10)
11–14	1.64	1.36	1.98
15–17	1.69	1.37	2.10
Male (ref=female)	1.60	1.37	1.60
Urban living (ref=rural)	1.36	1.13	1.63
Maternal education
Junior	0.72	0.58	0.89
Senior	0.70	0.54	0.90
College	0.51	0.37	0.70
Parent psychiatric disorder (ref=no)	1.46	1.08	1.98
Divorced family (ref=no)	1.63	1.26	2.11
Mother GHQ (ref=no)	1.46	1.14	1.87
Number of adults with GHQ (ref=0)
1	1.25	1.04	1.50
2	1.83	1.34	2.50
3	2.27	1.44	3.60

Figure 1 Hypothesized model for the interactions among the GHQ scores of three caretakers and the SDQ score of the student.

Notes: Model fit indices: χ2 = 0.705, df=², p=0.703, goodness-of-fit index (GFI)=¹.000, comparative fit index (CFI)=¹.000, root mean squared error of the approximation (RMSEA) *p<0.05; **p<0.01.

Abbreviation: e, error.

Kato N, Yanagawa T, Fujiwara T, et al. Prevalence of children’s mental health problems and the effectiveness of population-level family interventions. J Epidemiol. 2015;25(8):507–516. doi:10.2188/jea.JE2014019826250791

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Kieling C, Baker-Henningham H, Belfer M, et al. Child and adolescent mental health worldwide: evidence for action. Lancet. 2011;378(9801):1515–1525. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60827-122008427

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