HEALTH3.A Emotional and behavioral difficulties: Percentage of children ages 4–17 reported by a parent to have serious (definite/severe), minor, or no difficulties with emotions, concentration, behavior, or getting along with other people, by selected characteristics, 2005

Characteristic	Definite/severe difficulties	Minor difficulties	No difficulties
Age and gender
Total ages 4–17	4.6	16.2	79.2
Ages 4–7	2.8	14.0	83.2
Ages 8–10	4.8	18.4	76.8
Ages 11–14	4.9	17.0	78.0
Ages 15–17	6.2	15.7	78.1
Males ages 4–17	5.4	17.9	76.7
Ages 4–7	3.0	15.3	81.7
Ages 8–10	5.5	22.2	72.3
Ages 11–14	6.3	18.6	75.1
Ages 15–17	6.9	16.4	76.7
Females ages 4–17	3.8	14.4	81.8
Ages 4–7	2.5	12.7	84.8
Ages 8–10	4.2	14.7	81.1
Ages 11–14	3.4	15.4	81.2
Ages 15–17	5.4	14.9	79.7
Poverty status^a
Below 100% poverty	7.1	19.4	73.4
100–199% poverty	4.8	17.6	77.5
200% poverty and above	3.8	14.8	81.4
Race and Hispanic origin^b
White, non-Hispanic	4.8	16.5	78.7
Black, non-Hispanic	5.3	18.3	76.3
Hispanic^b	4.0	14.8	81.2
Other, non-Hispanic and multiple races	1.8	11.5	86.7
Family structure^c
Two parents	3.7	14.4	81.9
Mother only	6.9	20.6	72.4
Father only	4.2	19.9	75.8
No parents	9.8	22.5	67.7
^a Poverty level is based on family income and reflects family size and composition. It is adjusted each year using the annual average Consumer Price Index level. For more detail, see U.S. Census Bureau, Series P–60, no. 219.
^b The revised 1997 OMB standards for race were used for the 2005 race-specific estimates. A person's race is described by one or more of five racial groups: White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. Data on race and Hispanic origin are collected separately, but are combined for reporting. Estimates are not shown separately for American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and Two or more races due to the small sample size for each of these groups. Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.
^c “Two parents” includes two married or unmarried parents. The terms “mother” and “father” can include biological, adoptive, step, and foster relationships. “No parents” can include children cared for by other relatives or a legal guardian.
NOTE: Emotional or behavioral difficulties of children were based on parental responses to the following question on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)^1,2: “Overall, do you think that (child) has any difficulties in one or more of the following areas: emotions, concentration, behavior, or being able to get along with other people?” Response choices were: (1) no; (2) yes, minor difficulties; (3) yes, definite difficulties; and (4) yes, severe difficulties. Children with serious emotional or behavioral difficulties are defined as those whose parent responded “yes, definite” or “yes, severe.” These difficulties may be similar to but do not equate with the Federal definition of serious emotional disturbances (SED), used by the Federal government for planning purposes.
SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, 2005 National Health Interview Survey.
¹ Goodman, R. (1999). The extended version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire as a guide to child psychiatric caseness and consequent burden. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40, 791–799.
² Bourdon, K.H., Goodman, R., Rae, D., Simpson, G., and Koretz, D.S. (2005). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: U.S. Normative Data and Psychometric Properties, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 44(6):557–564.