Identification attempts in populations with a low prevalence of problems usually result in a considerable number of false positives. Thus, the aim of the current study was to investigate the false positive rate following nomination of developmental concerns by preschool teachers and the reasons for which teachers raise developmental concerns about children who display non-clinical levels of mental health problems.A total of 1430 children aged 1 to 6 years in Norwegian childcare centers were classified as true positive, false positive, true negative, or false negative by comparing preschool teachers’ nomination with their ratings on the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form, resulting in 127 (9%) false positives and 1142 (80%) true negatives.Compared to the true negative group, the false positive group received significantly higher scores on internalizing problems, externalizing problems than true negatives, conflict and significantly lower scores on closeness. Children’s internalizing and externalizing problems and age were the main factors that increased the likelihood of teachers raising concerns, while increased closeness in the teacher-child relationship reduced the likelihood of being nominated. Children’s gender and conflict level were not significant when adjusting for other factors.These findings suggest that preschool teachers’ concerns about children’s development should not be discarded as the false positive group did show elevated levels of problem behavior and poorer teacher-child relationship compared to the true negative group. Scrutinizing concerns in collaboration with parents and other mental health professionals may be beneficial to ensure healthy development for children with elevated problem levels.

在问题患病率较低的人群中尝试识别通常会导致大量误报。因此，本研究的目的是调查学龄前教师提名发展问题后的假阳性率，以及教师对表现出非临床水平的心理健康问题的儿童提出发展问题的原因。总共1430名儿童通过将学龄前老师的提名与他们在看护者-教师报告表中的等级进行比较，将挪威儿童保育中心1至6岁的孩子分为真阳性，假阳性，真阴性或假阴性。结果，导致127（9％）假阳性和1142（80％）个真实否定词。与真实否定词组相比，假阳性组在内在化，外在化问题上的得分要比真正的阴性，冲突和亲密感得分低得多。儿童的内在化和外在化问题以及年龄是增加教师提出关注的可能性的主要因素，而亲子关系中亲密关系的增加减少了被提名的可能性。当调整其他因素时，儿童的性别和冲突程度并不显着。这些发现表明，学前教师对儿童发展的担忧不应该被抛弃，因为假阳性组确实显示出较高的问题行为水平和较差的师生关系。真正的负面团体。