Measuring and understanding social-emotional behaviors in preschoolers from rural Pakistan

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is widely-used to measure symptoms of common childhood behavioral problems that may lead to mental health difficulties. In a sample of 1,302 highly-disadvantaged mothers and their preschoolers, we evaluated the factor structure and reliability of the parent-report version of the SDQ in rural Pakistan. Confirmatory factor analyses suggested that the original structure of the SDQ was not appropriate for our data. We created conceptually- and empirically-coherent measures of children’s externalizing behavior problems and prosocial skills. Child and family correlates of social-emotional behaviors were similar to those found in other countries, supporting the validity of our new composites. Girls and children with more siblings had fewer externalizing behavior problems and more prosocial behaviors at four years. Further, maternal depressive symptoms and food insecurity were uniquely linked to more externalizing behavior problems at four years. In contrast, maternal education, home environment quality, and social-emotional skills at two years were associated with more prosocial behaviors at four years.长处与困难问卷（Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire，SDQ）是一款被广泛应用的测评工具，用于评估可能引发心理健康问题的常见儿童行为问题症状。本研究以巴基斯坦农村地区1302名社会经济地位极度弱势的母亲及其学龄前儿童为样本，对SDQ家长报告版本的因子结构与信度进行了评估。验证性因子分析结果显示，SDQ的原始因子结构并不适配本次研究的数据。据此，我们构建了在概念与实证层面均具备一致性的儿童外化行为问题与亲社会技能测评量表。儿童社会情感行为的儿童与家庭相关影响因素与其他国家的研究结果相符，证实了本次新编合成量表的效度。研究发现，四岁女童以及拥有更多兄弟姐妹的儿童，其外化行为问题更少，亲社会行为表现更佳。此外，母亲抑郁症状与粮食不安全状况，与四岁儿童更严重的外化行为问题存在独立关联。与之相对，母亲受教育水平、家庭环境质量以及儿童两岁时的社会情感技能，则与四岁儿童更高水平的亲社会行为表现存在显著关联。