Influence of family environment on children's physical and mental health: Distinction between perceived and diagnosed health problems

Our study focuses on the impact of family environment on the health status of 10 year-old children. We distinguish physical and mental health as well as perceived and diagnosed problems. Data come from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD) that started collecting information in 1998 on a representative cohort of 2120 children aged 5 months. We create an indicator based on information reported by mothers and children at age ten. It consists of three mutually exclusive categories: 1) no health problem; 2) at least one perceived health problem but no diagnosed problem; 3) at least one diagnosed health problem. We use multinomial logistic regression models to assess whether the factors influencing the probability of having a diagnosed problem or a perceived problem are the same. We repeat the same model for three alternative indicators that consider either only physical health problems, only mental health problems, or both types of problems together. We include a range of risk factors drawn for family environment; some are time-invariant (e.g. age of mother at birth) others vary at each survey wave (e.g. poverty status). We expect to find that duration of poverty episodes and age at onset have different effects on perceived or diagnosed health.