Child Well-being in Flanders: A Multidimensional Account

Abstract

In this article we characterise the well-being of young children in the Belgian region of Flanders. We focus on three commonly used indicators: educational attainment, the existence of special needs and the occurrence of problematic behaviour. The former derives from a relatively impartial source, the schooling system, while the latter two originate from parental assessment. Somewhat surprisingly, the different measures are only weakly associated with each other. Moreover, negative outcomes tend to correlate with different characteristics of the child and the household, depending on the well-being indicator used. Only a low level of education of the mother and the fact the child is living in a single parent family is consistently associated with negative outcomes. This is not true, however, for a whole range of other characteristics, like the work schedule of the parents, the sex of the child, the child’s rank in the line of siblings or the number of children in the household. Consequently, policy makers should be wary of quick conclusions when presented with results from single indicator research. Educational lagging, for example, may seem a very objective measure of problems, yet it does not necessarily coincide with problematic behaviour nor a parental perception of special needs. Hence, political action is not self-evident and may require additional justification. For future research, a more thorough investigation about the links between the various indicators of child well-being seems indicated.

Annex 1: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

1.1 Scoring the Parent Rated SDQ

Although SDQ scores can be used as continuous variables, it is often convenient to classify scores as normal, borderline and abnormal. Using the bandings shown below, an abnormal score on the subscales and/or on the total difficulties score can be used to identify likely ‘cases’ with psychosocial disorders. This is clearly only a rough and ready method for detecting problems.

The cut-off points that we use to differentiate the children with a normal, borderline and problematic behaviour are deducted from Goodman’s research on British data (Goodman 1997). The points are based on the presumption that in a general population 80% of the children will have a normal and 10% of the children will have a problematic psychosocial behaviour. The resulting 10% will have a borderline behaviour that lies somewhere in between the normal and problematic behaviour. This assumed distribution (80/10/10) is also the basic assumption of the widely used Achenbach questionnaire (Hellinckx et al. 1993) (Table 15).

Table 15 The SDQ cut-off scores

1.2 Interpreting the SDQ-scores

Using these cut-off points in our data can lead to a proportion of children with problematic behaviour that is higher or lower than (the assumed) 10%. Nevertheless we will use these points—and we will not construct our own points—because of the comparability of the data. While interpreting the results of the SDQ, it is important to realise that the amount of children that is being classified as problematic or borderline is a result of the combination of this theoretical assumption and the cut-off points (the results of the SDQ in Goodman’s research).

van Widenfelt et al. (2003) translated the questionnaire from English into Dutch. This Dutch questionnaire has been tested on Flemish children in 2006. The researchers conclude that the SDQ is suited for the screening of a group of children if there are no clinical diagnoses linked to the results of this screening (Van Leeuwen et al. 2006, pp. 7–8).