Publication, Part of Mental Health of Children and Young People Surveys
Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2022 - wave 3 follow up to the 2017 survey
Official statistics, Survey
Technical appendix
Introduction
This appendix provides an update on the methodology used in the Mental Health of Children and Young People (MHCYP) 2022 follow up survey and contains information on any changes in methodology since the wave 2 survey that took place in 2021.
For all methodological details, including methodology that has not changed since the wave 2 follow up survey, see the 2021 Survey Design and Methods Report.
Sample design
The MHCYP 2022 sample was based on children and young people who took part in the 2017 MHCYP survey. All participants in the 2017 survey who agreed to be recontacted for future research during their interview and continued to agree to be recontacted during the 2020 survey and the 2021 survey if they participated in either or both of these, were invited to take part in the 2022 survey.
Consent to recontact was received for 7,351 children and young people aged 7 to 24 years. Contact details were updated using the NHS Patient Register database and any sampled children who were flagged as either passed away or not to be approached for data collection were removed. This resulted in a final issued sample of 7,253 children and young people (Table 1).
Table 1: Issued sample for the MHCYP 2022 survey
Number | |
Achieved interviews in MHCYP 2017 | 9,117 |
Agreement to recontact for MHCYP 2022 | 7,351 |
Eligible for recontact in MHCYP 2022 | 7,253 |
Questionnaire content
The MHCYP 2022 data were collected via Computer Assisted Web Interview (CAWI) and Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI), with the type of questionnaire administered dependent on the age of the sampled child or young person (see Table 2).
Table 2: Types of questionnaires for children and young people of different ages, MHCYP 2022
7 to 10 year olds | 11 to 16 year olds | 17 to 24 year olds |
Parent questionnaire only | Parent questionnaire and child questionnaire | Young person questionnaire only |
Information on a variety of topics were collected either through questions developed specifically for this survey or using standardised measures. The full questionnaire can be found in the questionnaire and materials documentation. The broad themes covered are listed below.
MHCYP 2022 topic coverage for children aged 7 to 16 years in the parent questionnaire:
- Demographics, household composition and tenure
- Employment status
- Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)
- Self-harm
- General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12)
- Loneliness
- Family functioning
- Service contact
- Outcome of service contact and waiting lists
- Physical health of child and COVID-19 status
- Education
- Special educational needs or disabilities (SEND)
- Household circumstances and changes
- Eating, sleeping and activities
- Consent to data linkage and future research
MHCYP 2022 topic coverage for children aged 11 to 16 years in the child questionnaire:
- Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)
- Short Warwick-Edinburgh Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS)
- Loneliness
- Family functioning
- Neighbourhood
- Service contact
- Education
- Eating, sleeping and activities
- Social media
In 2022, children aged 16 years and their parents were asked the consent questions on data linkage and future research whereas in 2017, 2020 and 2021 only parents were asked this.
MHCYP 2022 topic coverage for young people aged 17 to 24 years:
- Demographics, household composition and tenure
- Education and employment
- Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)
- General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12)
- Loneliness
- Self-harm
- Psychotic-like experiences
- Family functioning
- Service contact
- Outcome of service contact and waiting lists
- Education or work
- Physical health and COVID-19 status
- Household circumstances and changes
- Eating, sleeping and activities
- Social media
- Feelings about the future
- Consents to data linkage and future research
Standardised measures
In the MHCYP 2022 survey the family connectedness scale was no longer included.
All other standardised measures included in the 2021 survey were also included in 2022. These are detailed in the 2021 Survey Design and Methods Report.
Table 3 presents the additional standardised assessment tools that were included in the MHCYP 2022 survey that were not included in the 2021 survey.
Table 3: Assessment tools added to MHCYP 2022
Topic | Assessment tool | Questionnaire |
Wellbeing |
Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS)1 SWEMWBS enables the monitoring of mental wellbeing in the general population. This survey used the 7-item scale. Further information can be found at https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/med/research/platform/wemwbs/ |
Child |
Psychotic-like experiences |
The Adolescent Psychotic-Like Symptom Screener (APSS)2 APSS is designed to assess a variety of psychotic symptoms over the past 12 months. The screener has 7-items with 3 possible response options: 'yes, definitely’, 'maybe' and 'no, never.' Being ‘at-risk’ for psychotic-like experiences was defined as scoring 2 or more out of a possible 7 points. Further information can be found at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19542527/ |
Young people |
1. Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) © NHS Health Scotland, University of Warwick and University of Edinburgh, 2006, all rights reserved.
2. Kelleher, Harley, Murtagh, & Cannon, 2011
The Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale was previously included in the 2020 survey. The Adolescent Psychotic-Like Symptom Screener (APSS) has not been included in any of the previous MHCYP surveys.
Measuring mental health
The MHCYP 2022 used the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to assess the likelihood of a possible or probable mental disorder in children and young people.
Responses provided in the SDQ were combined using the pseudo diagnostic algorithm to indicate whether each child or young person was unlikely, possibly or probably demonstrating a mental health condition in the following domains: emotional, behaviour and hyperactivity disorders. This algorithm combines data from all available participants. Table 4 presents the participants used to inform the identification of unlikely, possible or probable mental disorder for the 2022 survey by age.
More information on the SDQ and the participants that were used for previous surveys is available in the 2021 Survey Design and Methods Report.
Table 4: Participants feeding into classification of unlikely, possible or probable mental disorders, by age
7 to 10 year olds | 11 to 16 year olds | 17 to 24 year olds | |
2022 score | Parent questionnaire (online or telephone adminstered) | Parent questionnaire (online or telephone adminstered) | Young person questionnaire (online or telephone administered) |
Child questionnaire (online or telephone administered) |
Invitation letters
An invitation letter and information leaflet were sent to each sampled address. The letter was addressed to the parent or carer of the sampled child for children aged 7 to 16 years inviting the parent to take part. For those aged 11 to 16 years, the letter also invited the sampled child (via instruction to the parent) to take part.
For young people aged 17 to 24 years, the letter was either addressed to the parent or carer of the young person or the young person directly, depending on how consent to recontact was obtained in the 2017, 2020 or 2021 surveys. If the young person was old enough to give their own consent to be recontacted the last time they took part in the survey series, then the letter was addressed to the young person inviting them to take part. If the last time the young person had taken part it was their parent or carer that had given consent to be recontacted, then the letter was addressed to the parent or carer asking the young person to take part in the survey.
The letter explained how to complete the questionnaire online. An example of the advance letter is provided in the questionnaire and materials documentation.
A copy of the survey information leaflets (1 aimed at parents and young people, and 1 aimed at children aged 11 to 16 years) is also available in the questionnaire and materials documentation.
Data collection and survey response
The fieldwork took place over 7 and a half weeks (4 April to 25 May 2022). Participants who had not responded 3 weeks into the survey period received a reminder letter. A copy of the reminder letter can be found in the questionnaire and materials documentation.
Telephone interviews started 1 week after the online questionnaire had launched. The telephone unit phoned those participants that had not yet completed the online survey and offered support with the online survey or the ability to complete via telephone. The telephone unit focussed for the first week on ethnic minority participants and those living in the most deprived areas, before opening up to the whole sample. In addition to reminder letters, 2022 participants were also sent text and email reminders (where contact details were available). As a thank you for their participation, a £10 shopping voucher was given to each household that completed the questionnaire.
Table 5 presents the response rate to the survey, by age of the sampled child or young person. Of the 7,253 children and young people aged 7 to 24 years approached to take part, responses were received from 2,866 (40% response rate) children and young people or their parents/carers (following data cleaning and validation). Of these, 603 participants completed the survey via telephone. There were 1,682 children and young people who took part in the 2017, 2020, 2021 and 2022 surveys.
Table 5: Survey response by age of sampled child or young person, MHCYP 2022
7 to 10 years |
11 to 16 years |
17 to 19 years |
20 to 24 years |
7 to 24 years |
|
Issued sample | 1,722 | 2,832 | 1,245 | 1,454 | 7,253 |
Cases with a phone number | 1,679 | 2,668 | 1,158 | 1,390 | 6,895 |
Eligible achieved1 online or telephone / response rate | 853 (50%) |
1,052 (37%) |
468 (38%) |
493 (34%) |
2,866 (40%) |
Telephone completion | 183 | 202 | 93 | 125 | 603 |
Child completion (online or telephone) | 717 (25%) |
1. Eligible achieved are cases where interviews were achieved online or by telephone which have been validated and therefore have been used in the final analysis.
The response rate for those in the ethnic minority groups was 36% and 40% for those in the white ethnic group.
Table 6 presents the average questionnaire completion length by age of the sampled child or young person.
Table 6: Average length of time to complete the questionnaire (minutes) by age of sampled child or young person, MHCYP 2022
Online1 Parents/ young people |
Online1 Child | Telephone2 Parents/ young people |
Telephone2 Child | |
7 to 10 | 17.36 | n/a | 37.08 | n/a |
11 to 16 | 19.58 | 11.20 | 39.62 | 23.42 |
17 to 19 | 18.96 | n/a | 38.66 | n/a |
20 to 24 | 17.58 | n/a | 39.99 | n/a |
1. Based on those who took an hour or less to complete the questionnaire and reached the final timestamps. Outliers above 60 minutes were removed from this table.
2. Based on those who took 2 hours or less to complete the questionnaire and reached the final timestamps. Outliers above 120 minutes were removed from this table.
Weighting and non-response
The survey data were weighted to take account of non-response, so that the results were representative of the population aged 7 to 24 years in England.
The weighting method was consistent with the method used in 2021 as detailed in the 2021 Survey Design and Methods Report.
As in previous waves, calibration was used to ensure the weights sum to population totals. Due to the children and young people being older in 2022 than in 2021, the calibration groups were updated, and the achieved sample of 2,866 children and young people were calibrated to 2022 population totals. Calibration was split into 2 partitions. These are outlined in Table 7.
Table 7: Calibration of the 2022 cross-sectional weights to population totals
2022 cross-sectional weight |
Age bands (age at 31 August 2022) by sex (Age bands = 7 to 10, 11 to 16, 17 to 19, 20 to 24) |
Age bands (age at 31 August 2022) by region (former government office regions) (Age bands = 7 to 10, 11 to 16, 17 to 24) |
Data analysis and reporting
The age of the children and young people taking part has increased over time with the analysis based on the age of the sampled child or young person at specific points in time:
-
in 2017 they were aged 2 to 19 years based on their age on 31 August 2017
-
in 2020 they were aged 5 to 22 years based on their age on 31 August 2020
-
in 2021 they were aged 6 to 23 years based on their age on 31 August 2021
-
in 2022 they were aged 7 to 24 years based on their age on 31 August 2022
Therefore, the age groups used for analysis have been updated to reflect this.
In the MHCYP 2022 report, the cross-sectional analyses comparing 2017, 2020, 2021 and 2022 were based on those aged 7 to 16 years and 17 to 19 years, as these age groups were present at every wave. Comparisons between 2020, 2021 and 2022 are available for those aged 20 to 22 years for some questions and comparisons between 2021 and 2022 are available for those aged 20 to 23 years for some questions. The 2022 survey was the only one to capture 24 year olds; therefore, some standalone estimates for those aged 17 to 24 years have been included for 2022 where appropriate. There were no longer any 6 year olds in the cohort by 2022.
Analysis for 2017 includes the 9,117 children and young people who took part in the survey in 2017 (of these 6,419 were aged 7 to 19 years with 6,416 having a valid mental health category based on the SDQ). Analysis for 2020 includes the 3,570 children and young people who took part in the 2020 survey (of which 3,153 were aged 7 to 22 years), and analysis for 2021 draws on data from the 3,667 children and young people who took part in 2021 (of which 3,512 were aged 7 to 23 years). Analysis for 2022 includes all the 2,866 children and young people who took part in the 2022 survey.
The characteristics of the sample in 2017, 2020, 2021 and 2022 can be found in Table A in the associated Excel data tables.
All analysis presented is cross-sectional with no longitudinal analysis included in the 2022 report. Throughout the report confidence intervals have been used to determine if differences between estimates are statistically significant. Estimates are considered very likely to be different if their confidence intervals do not overlap. No additional statistical hypothesis testing has been performed. Further details on confidence intervals are available in the 2021 Survey Design and Methods Report.
Data access for approved researchers
Approved researchers seeking to undertake further secondary analysis of data from the 2017, 2020, 2021 and 2022 surveys will be able to access the data from the UK Data Service under Special User Licence. Applicants will need to apply for permission to use the data via NHS Digital Data Access Request Service. Once approval has been granted, the data can be downloaded from the UK Data Service. You can find out more about access at the UK Data Service webpage and the Population health surveys - NHS Digital webpage.
Last edited: 31 January 2023 9:34 am