SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL WELLBEING

Measuring social and emotional wellbeing

Carers were asked for information about difficulties their children might have with emotions, feelings and behaviours. Along with questions about the overall social and emotional wellbeing of children, interviewers also administered a version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (see Glossary). The SDQ is used throughout the world to measure emotional and behavioural difficulties in children and young people. Selection of the SDQ was made following wide ranging consultations with Aboriginal people in urban and remote areas across Western Australia.

Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

The SDQ comprises 25 questions looking into five areas of emotional and behavioural difficulties:

The responses from the 20 questions related to the first four of these areas are combined to produce the Strengths and Difficulties Total Score. This score can rang from zero to a maximum of 40.

The Strengths and Difficulties Total Score can be grouped into three ranges to indicate the risk of clinically significant emotional or behavioural difficulties in Aboriginal children and young people:

Thus, children with a Strengths and Difficulties Total score in the range of 17 to 40 are classified as being at high risk of clinically significant emotional or behavioural difficulties.

Additional details about the reliability and validity of the SDQ in assessing emotional or behavioural difficulties in Aboriginal children have been published in an ICHR technical paper. See: http://www.ichr.uwa.edu.au/waachs/publications/papers

Emotional and behavioural difficulties

Of the estimated 22,900 Aboriginal children aged 4 to 17 years at the time of the survey, 24 per cent were assessed as being at high risk of clinically significant emotional or behavioural difficulties.

Aboriginal children aged 4–17 years — Distribution of Strengths and Difficulties Total Scores

The WAACHS version of the SDQ had never been administered before in Western Australia. In order to make comparisons from the WAACHS of the SDQ outcomes for non-Aboriginal children, a survey of 1,200 carers of children aged 4–17 years in Western Australia was commissioned by the WAACHS survey team.

An estimated 26 per cent of Aboriginal children aged 4 to 11 years were at high risk of clinically significant emotional or behavioural difficulties, compared with 17 per cent of non-Aboriginal children in the same age group.

For Aboriginal children aged 12 to 17 years, 21 per cent were a high risk of clinically significant emotional or behavioural difficulties, compared with 13 per cent of non-Aboriginal children in this age group.

ABORIGINAL AND NON-ABORIGINAL CHILDREN AGED 4–17 YEARS — PROPORTION AT HIGH RISK OF CLINICALLY SIGNIFICANT EMOTIONAL OR BEHAVIOURAL DIFFICULTIES, BY AGE GROUP

As shown in the next figure, the mean SDQ score for Aboriginal children aged 4 to 17 years declined consistently with age. For each age from 4 years to 17 years the mean SDQ score was higher for Aboriginal children than for non-Aboriginal children.

ABORIGINAL AND NON-ABORIGINAL CHILDREN AGED 4–17 YEARS — MEAN STRENGTHS AND DIFFICULTIES SCORE, BY AGE

Level of Relative Isolation

For both male and female children, SDQ scores were lowest in areas of extreme isolation when compared to the rest of the state. This suggests that growing up in areas of extreme isolation, where adherence to traditional culture and ways of life is strongest, may be protective against emotional and behavioural difficulties in Aboriginal children.

PROPORTION OF ABORIGINAL CHILDREN AGED 4 TO 17 YEARS AT HIGH RISK OF CLINICALLY SIGNIFICANT EMOTIONAL OR BEHAVIOURAL DIFFICULTIES, BY LEVEL OF RELATIVE ISOLATION AND SEX

 

Identifying factors associated with emotional or behavioural difficulties in Aboriginal children

A variety of social circumstances, health conditions and lifestyles experienced by Aboriginal children, their carers and families were found to be associated with emotional and behavioural difficulties in Aboriginal children.

Statistical modelling (see Logistic Regression in Glossary) identified the following factors as those most strongly associated with emotional and behavioural difficulties in Aboriginal children:

 

Protective factors

Some attributes appear to be protective against children developing emotional or behavioural difficulties.

Children living in homes with a high household occupancy level were half as likely to be at high risk of clinically significant emotional or behavioural difficulties compared with children living in homes with a low level household occupancy.

Aboriginal children living in areas of extreme isolation were one-fifth as likely to be at high risk of clinically significant emotional or behavioural difficulties compared with children living in the Perth metropolitan area.

Other factors

A number of other child, carer and family and household factors were found to increase the likelihood of Aboriginal children being at high risk of clinically significant emotional or behavioural difficulties. These included:

The significance of these findings

The findings reported in Volume 2 highlight the magnitude and urgency of the emotional and behavioural difficulties faced by many Aboriginal communities and families.

This report also highlights key areas where action is likely to be effective in bringing about improvements for Aboriginal children and young people. Radically new approaches are needed to address the underlying disadvantage which is compromising the normal processes of child development and the future life prospects of far too many Aboriginal children and young people. For full details click here .