Parents may also have concerns about older children’s emotions, behavior, concentration or ability to get along with others. Parents were asked whether they felt that their 3- to 17-year-old children had difficulties in any of these areas and to rate these difficulties as minor, moderate, or severe. Overall, the parents of 9.2 percent of children in this age group reported that their children had moderate or severe difficulties in at least one of these areas.

Again, parents of boys were more likely to report concerns about their children’s emotional or behavioral health than were girls. Of boys aged 3-17, 11.3 percent were reported to have moderate or severe difficulties, compared to parents of 6.9 percent of girls in this age group.

The prevalence of parents’ concerns about these problems appears to increase with their children’s age as well. While only 4.9 percent of 3- to 5-year-olds had parent-reported socio-emotional difficulties, 9.6 percent of 6- to 11-year-olds and 10.9 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds did so.

Children in poor families were twice as likely as those in higher-income families to be reported to have socio-emotional difficulties. Of children with family incomes below the poverty level, 14 percent were reported to have these problems, compared to 11.6 percent of children with family incomes between 100 and 199 percent of poverty. Of children with family incomes between 200 and 399 percent of FPL, 7.9 percent were reported to have socio-emotional problems, as were 6.1 percent of children with family incomes of 400 percent of FPL or more.