Citation

Loades ME, Mastroyannopoulou K. Child Adolesc. Ment. Health 2010; 15(3): 150-156.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1475-3588.2009.00551.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Background: Teachers have a significant role to play in identifying children with mental health problems. However, teachers’ perceptions of children’s mental health problems are relatively unexplored.

Method: Primary school teachers (N = 113) completed a questionnaire, composed of vignettes describing children with symptoms of a common emotional disorder and a common behavioural disorder, following which they were asked a number of questions regarding problem recognition and help‐seeking.

Results: Teachers were able to recognise the existence of a problem and rate its severity. They were significantly more concerned about a vignette of a child with symptoms of a behavioural disorder than an emotional disorder. The gender of the child was found to independently predict teachers’ accurately recognising when a child had a problem.

Conclusion: Teachers are good at recognising whether a child presents with a problem. However, their problem recognition is affected by both the gender of the child and the type of symptomatology being displayed (emotional versus behavioural).