title: Cutting a long story short? The clinical relevance of asking parents, nurses, and young children themselves to identify children's mental health problems by one or two questions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Assessing young children's mental health is a crucial and challenging task. The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical relevance of asking parents, nurses, and young children themselves to identify children's mental health problems by only one or two questions.
  
  
  METHODS
  In regular health check-ups of 4- to 9-year-old children (n = 2682), parents and public health nurses assessed by one question whether the child had any emotional or behavioral difficulties. The child completed a self-evaluation enquiry on his/her emotional well-being. A stratified proportion of the participating parents were invited to a diagnostic interview.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sensitivities were fairly good for the parents' (68%), nurses' (65%), and their combined (79%) one-question screens. Difficulties identified by parents and nurses were major risks (OR 10-14) for any child psychiatric disorders (P < 0.001). The child's self-evaluation was related to 2-fold to 3-fold risks (P < 0.05) for any psychiatric diagnosis, for any emotional diagnosis, and for negative situational factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The one-question screen for parents and public health nurses together quite adequately identified the young children with mental health problems. The child's self-evaluation provided relevant and complementary information on his/her mental health and especially emotional problems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Tampere, 33014 Tampere, Finland ; Department of Child Psychiatry, Tampere University Hospital, PL 2000, 33521 Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Anne-Mari
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1845-5719
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Borg
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere, 33014 Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Raili
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2433-1683
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Salmelin
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere, 33014 Tampere, Finland ; Department of Psychiatry, Tampere University Hospital, PL 2000, 33521 Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Matti
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Joukamaa
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Tampere, 33014 Tampere, Finland ; Department of Child Psychiatry, Tampere University Hospital, PL 2000, 33521 Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Tuula
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tamminen
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D012574:Schools; D013315:Stress, Psychological