Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2023 - wave 4 follow up to the 2017 survey

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was used to identify children who may have had problems with aspects of their mental health to such an extent that it impacted on their daily lives. These include difficulties with their emotions, behaviour, relationships, hyperactivity or concentration. Responses from parents, children and young people were used to estimate the likelihood that a child or young person might have a mental disorder, this was classified as either ‘unlikely’, ‘possible’ or ‘probable’. 

The initial MHCYP 2017 report used a different and more detailed diagnostic assessment of mental disorder, the Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA), which drew on reports from young people, parents, and teachers and involved clinical consensus rating. Any comparisons between 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 must therefore draw on the results presented in this report, which are based on a comparable measure (the SDQ). 
 

A measure of the statistical precision of an estimate and shows the range of uncertainty around the calculated estimate. Lower and upper 95% confidence intervals are provided in the Excel data tables. At the 95% confidence level, over many repeats of a survey under the same conditions, one would expect that the confidence interval would contain the true population value 95 times out of 100. Narrower confidence intervals (difference between lower and upper interval) indicate a more precise estimate. 

Eating disorders refers to those who had a clinically impairing eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia or another eating disorder according to the International Classification of Disease version 10 (ICD-10). Eating disorders are characterised by disturbances in eating behaviours, appetite or food intake. They usually start in the teenage years. Eating disorders can cause heart and kidney problems and even death.

The term ‘parent’ is used throughout to refer to the parent or carer of the child completing the survey.

Young people aged 11 to 25 years and parents of children aged 8 to 16 years completed the 5 screening questions from the Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA) Eating Disorders module. ‘Screening positive’ for a possible eating problem was defined as scoring above the threshold (answering yes to 2 or more items where a parent is reporting on a child and answering yes to 1 or more items where a young person is reporting on themselves) on these questions. ‘Screening positive’ does not mean that the child or young person had a clinically impairing eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia but indicates an increased likelihood of broader problems or difficulties with eating.

The statistical significance of differences noted within the report are determined based on non-overlapping confidence intervals.