The huge variability across studies in this area in terms of the different methods used, the wide-
ranging age of participants, variation in terminology used both in asking children about mental
health problems and to explain findings, and differences in age and gender of stimulus characters
across studies, makes synthesis and comparison of findings problematic. Inconsistencies in
findings relating to gender and age indicate that further research in this area is needed.
Moreover, research in this area tends to be characterised by questionnaire studies (for example
Bailey, 1999; Watson et al., 2004; Williams & Pow, 2007), which are limited in the extent to which
they enable an in-depth exploration of the meanings and experiences as understood by children