Description: Ten reports were written by teachers on their experience of using the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire on adolescents in Mangaung and on the perceived mental health problems being experienced by the adolescent in their classrooms. Abstract: This data set was developed out of a small methodological component of a larger study. The aims of the larger study were:

(1) To assess the performance of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to predict Emotional behavioural disorders (EBD) in Sesotho 7-11 year olds as determined by the National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Investigative Schedule for Children 4th Edition (NIMH DISC-IV) and clinician diagnosis, and (2) To ascertain the expert opinions of Sesotho schoolteachers regarding the utility value of the SDQ for use in schools. (3) To use the multi-method, multiple informant information collected to investigate the association between (a) orphan type (paternal-, maternal-, double-, and non- orphan) and EBD and (b) orphan status (orphan by AIDS, orphan by other means, non-orphan) and EBD and factors that may mediate these relationships (poverty and caregiver Substance use disorder(SUD)).

Within this larger study a sub-group of 10 teachers were asked to write a report on, their views on the usefulness of the SDQ in understanding and assisting the learners in their classes; and to give their perceptions on the mental health problems faced by the learners. This data set contains the views of these 10 respondents.

Self-completion

All teachers who participated in the larger study.

After having completed about two thirds of the total assessments for the study, so having given the teachers a number of opportunities using the tool, ten teachers, who had each assessed at least five learners, were approached to write an evaluation report on their experience of using the SDQ and on their assessments of the mental health concerns of their students. The inclusion criteria for the original group of teachers to complete SDQ forms on their learners, were that they taught grades 3 to 6 for at least three years at schools in the community where the research was being done, and had daily contact with pupils. The selection of the teachers to complete the evaluation report was on the basis of obtaining a spread across multiple schools in the communities where the study was done and having a spread across grades 3 to 6, and those who the fieldworkers felt had shown the greatest insight into objectives of the broader study.