Child Mental Health
Child mental health was measured using the Strengths and Difficulties
Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997). The SDQ is a 25-item parental-report
measure that captures children’s mental health. Mothers rated the items
on a 3-point Likert scale as either ‘Not true’ (0), ‘Somewhat true’ (1)
or ‘Certainly true’ (2). The SDQ is comprised of 5 subscales: 4
‘difficulties’ subscales including emotional problems (e.g., “Many
worries or often seems worried”), conduct problems (e.g., “Often loses
temper”), hyperactivity (e.g., “Restless, overactive, cannot stay
still for long”), and peer problems (e.g., “Gets along better with
adults than with other children”), and 1 prosocial subscale (e.g.,
“considerate of other people’s feelings”). Each subscale contains five
items. Because the SDQ has a multi-dimensional 5-factor factor structure
and high discriminant validity across the five subscales (Croft et al.,
2015), the summed scores for each of the five subscales (ranging from 0
to 10) were used. Additionally, confirmatory factor analysis has
supported this 5-factor measurement model (Croft et al., 2015). Note
that the prosocial scale was reverse-coded; therefore, higher values
reflect more problems with prosocial behaviour.