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There is no denying the fundamental role played by parents in the psychosocial development of their children-either as a liability or as protection against mental health disorders. This study seeks to ascertain, by means of odds ratio statistics (OR), the correlation between parental psychological control and emotional and behavioral disorders. A total of 762 students took part in this study, with an average age of 12.23 years-53.8% of whom were girls and 46.2% were boys. Children and adolescents reported their parental psychological control and their emotional and behavioral disorders (i.e., emotional and behavioral problems, internalizing and externalizing problems). Minors who perceive their psychological control as high are 6 times more likely to suffer from internalizing disorders and 4.8 times more likely to develop externalizing disorders. Furthermore, the probability of suffering externalizing disorders is higher among males who perceive a high degree of psychological control. This study breaks new ground on the importance of perceived psychological control-considered as a negative form of control by parents-in the emotional and behavioral disorders among children and adolescents.

The analysis of the mental health in children under 14 years has become a research topic of global interest where the family can be a key factor for protection or risk against mental health problems. With this work, we intend to determine, employing binary logistic regression analysis, whether parental acceptance-rejection perceived by boys and girls can predict their mental health. Seven hundred sixty-two students participated, the average age was 12.23 years; 53.8% (n = 410) girls and 46.2% (n = 352) boys. We have used the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), self-reported version and the Affection Scale children version (EA-H) for parental acceptance-rejection to assess mental health. The odds ratio (OR) of the logistic models reports that there is a greater probability of having mental health problems in boys and girls when they perceive that they are highly criticized and rejected by their parents. With our work, we highlight the importance of the environment and family affection on mental health. The perception of the children about the rejection, aversion, and criticism of their parents constitutes a risk factor in the manifestation of mental health problems.

Background: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is one of the most internationally widely used questionnaire to measure mental health. The aim of this study is to analyze the discrimination cutoff of the questionnaire in Spanish population and the association between the Spanish children mental health and the variables gender, municipality size and health status in the last twelve months., Method: The results of the Spanish National Health Survey-2006 were used with a selected sample of 6390 children between 4 and 15 years. Through discriminant analysis and ROC curves, we analyzed the cutoff score provide in the SDQ-parent with Spanish population and the measures of association are forecasted with respect to the independent variables., Results: the cutoff equal to 20, used in the SDQ-parent with Spanish population, provided a sensitivity of 0,964 and a specificity of 0,945. The relationship between mental health and sex (OR 1,17) and municipality size (OR 0,85) gave not significant p-value (p>0,05). However, this relation get a significant p-value for the variable health situation in the last twelve months (OR 0,30; p<0,05)., Conclusions: The cutoff score equal to 20 is adequate to discriminate the Spanish children mental health through the SDQ-parent version. The influence between health situation in the last year and mental health is accepted, compared to a lack of influence of gender and municipality size variables.