13% of school children aged 6 to 11 have a probable mental health problem

The pandemic has put our nerves on edge, which underscores the importance of taking care of your mental health. And the advice also applies to children. A national study by Enabee, published on Tuesday, June 20, by Public Health France, provides an alarming conclusion: 13% of primary school children aged 6 to 11 have at least one “probable” mental health disorder.

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Multiple cumulative disorders

To reach this conclusion, the French agency interviewed more than 15,000 children (8,172 questionnaires were usable and constituted the sample on which the research findings were presented), 15,000 teachers from about 400 schools, and 10,000 parents of CP students using special questionnaires. to the CM2 capital in France between May 2 and July 31, 2022.

More specifically, this research paper shed light on three types of disorders. Of the study sample, 5.6% of children have a “probable emotional disorder,” either an anxiety disorder (separation anxiety, generalized anxiety, specific phobias) or depression. 6.6% of children suffer from “probable oppositional disorder”, which is characterized by especially angry mood, aggressive or contemptuous behavior. Finally, 3.2% of the total sample showed probable attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD).

Most children have only one disorder, but some may have multiple disorders.

Nolven Régnon, Head of Perinatal, Early Childhood and Mental Health at the French Santé Publique

“Most children suffer from only one disorder, but some may combine several,” Nolven Regnault, head of Perinatal, Early Childhood and Mental Health at Public Health France, told AFP.

More emotional difficulties for girls

However, these data do not highlight any differences by school level and school sector (public schools outside priority education networks and private schools vs. REP or REP+ public schools). On the other hand, probable emotional disorders are more common in girls, while conduct disorders are more common in boys.

These indicators, the first of their kind, however “do not allow us to draw conclusions about the presence of an impact of Covid-19 in the spring of 2022 on the mental health of children from CP to CM2 in the absence of national French attending school. data on this age group before the crisis,” states Public Health France in its press release. However, they will serve as a basis for assessing the impact of possible events (infectious or environmental), but also for initiating future awareness-raising activities.

Almost one in six children needed care for a psychological reason

The second, “supplementary” survey, also published this Tuesday by Drees (Statistics Department of the Ministry of Health) and extracted from Part 3 of Epidemiology and Living Conditions related to the Covid-19 (EpiCov) study, was particularly interested in: psychological distress exacerbated by the health crisis and suffered by a growing minority of children and adolescents. Basically, we learn that from March 2020 to July 2021, i.e. 15 months after the first arrest, 12% of boys and 13% of girls between the ages of 3 and 17 went to a health worker for psychological reasons. Previously, only 7% of boys and 6% of girls had already passed this way.

“The primary factor associated with child psychosocial difficulties is the mental health of the responding parent,” Drees explains in a commentary on the study. Before adding: “Increased screen time and less time devoted to reading and physical activity are factors associated with these difficulties.”

Taking into account children who were not consulted but whose parents believed they needed help with psychological difficulties and that that help was the responsibility of a health care professional, 15% of children would need care, the study found. That’s almost one in six children.

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