Associations between mental health competence and indicators of physical health and cognitive development in eleven year olds: findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Positive mental health may support healthy development in childhood, although few studies have investigated this at a population level. We aimed to construct a measure of mental health competence (MHC), a skills-based assessment of positive mental health, using existing survey items in a representative sample of UK children, and to investigate its overlap with mental health difficulties (MHD), socio-demographic patterning, and relationships with physical health and cognitive development.

Methods

We analysed the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) when children were aged 11 years. Maternal (n = 12,082) and teacher (n = 6739) reports of prosocial behaviours (PS) and learning skills (LS) were entered into latent class models to create MHC measures. Using descriptive sta

SUBMITTER: Hope S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6836461 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature