Mental Health in Pre-Adolescents with Cerebral Palsy: Exploring the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire as a Screening Tool in a Follow-Up Study including Multi-Informants
Open accessAbstract
There is a high prevalence of mental health problems in children with Cerebral Palsy (CP). Still, knowledge regarding the trajectory of mental health problems throughout childhood and differences according to informants is lacking. There is also a need for more knowledge regarding the validity of mental health screening tools. In the present study, we assessed changes in parent-rated mental health problems in a cohort of 36 children with CP from school-starting age to pre-adolescence and differences in mental health problems according to informants. Further, we assessed the validity of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for psychiatric disorders. The study cohort was assessed using the SDQ and a child psychiatric diagnostic instrument at school-starting age and at pre-adolescence. Mean parental SDQ scores increased significantly for emotional, hyperactivity and total problems. Self-reported impact of mental health problems was significantly lower than parent-reported impact, and parents and pre-adolescents reported significantly higher mean scores than teachers for emotional problems, conduct problems and total problem scores. Validated against psychiatric disorders, the SDQ was satisfactory for screening children with CP for risk of psychiatric disorders at pre-adolescence. We recommend that mental health screening be integrated into the regular follow-up for children with CP.
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Bjorgaas et al. reported that the rates of mental health symptoms increased across childhood in a sample of children with cerebral palsy.
“Bjorgaas et al. [15] also reported that the rates of mental health symptoms increased across childhood in a sample of children with CP.”
From The Mental Health of Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Review of the Last Five Years of Research (2025) · cites this paper as [15]
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was found to be satisfactory for the CP population at pre-adolescence.
“One screening measure that was seen frequently across this review, and may be helpful in assessing, is the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, which was found to be satisfactory for this population at pre-adolescence [15].”
From The Mental Health of Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Review of the Last Five Years of Research (2025) · cites this paper as [15]
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The Mental Health of Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Review of the Last Five Years of Research
Rausch, R., Chahin, S., Miller, C., Dopheide, L., Bovio, N., Harris, A., & Patel, D. (2025) · Journal of Clinical Medicine · doi:10.3390/jcm14124364 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
- Authors
- Bjorgaas, H. M., Elgen, I. B., & Hysing, M.
- Affiliations
- Department of Pediatric Neurology, Habu Stavanger, Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger HF, 4068 Stavanger, Norway
- University of Bergen (NO)
- Venue
- Children
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2022-07-06
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1009
- ISSN
- 2227-9067 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9318898
- OpenAlex
- W4283827552
- Cited by
- 7
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 0.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Children (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Western Regional Health Authorities (912149)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Cerebral Palsy and Movement Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Family and Disability Support Research
- Keywords
- cerebral palsy, mental health, preadolescents, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, mental health screening, informant differences, parent report, self-report, teacher reports, mental illness, emotional problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity, child psychiatric diagnosis, screening validity
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