Introduction

The Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) considers it a privilege to be able to gather and share data about the health and well-being of children in BC. HELP’s vision of “all children thriving in healthy societies” is shared with many individuals, institutions, and organizations, both nationally and across the province. HELP’s role in gathering valid and reliable data, reporting data in accessible and relevant ways, and working closely with partners to use the evidence toward this vision is integral to the process of improving outcomes for all children and families in BC. 

Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI) data provide insights into children’s social and emotional health, well-being and assets during middle childhood—from their own perspective. Middle childhood and early adolescence—ages 6 to 13—is an important phase of life that includes physical, emotional and cognitive changes as well as shifts in peer and adult relationships. It is a window of opportunity in which positive development can be supported to set the stage for successful development in adolescence and adulthood. Learning from children directly—in their own voices—provides actionable data to support the design and implementation of programs, practices and policies that promote children’s social and emotional health and well-being. MDI data are used by school systems and broader community partners, along with families and the children themselves, to work collectively toward positive change during this important transitional time in children’s lives.

The MDI was first implemented by HELP in BC in 2009. In BC, over 75% of public school districts have participated in the MDI, as well as a number of independent and First Nations schools. Many school districts and schools choose to participate in the MDI every 1 to 3 years to track trends in MDI data over time.  

The MDI is one of Child Development Monitoring System tools designed to gather data at important transition times during childhood.  

Learn More

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About the MDI Dashboard Technical Guide

The MDI Dashboard Technical Guide is intended to support the interpretation and use of data on the MDI Data Dashboard. For detailed information about all the measures included on the MDI questionnaire, view the MDI Companion Guide. 

The MDI Data Dashboard is an online, interactive tool for exploring trends in MDI data over the last five years. This is the first time HELP has made MDI data over time available for exploring at the school district and neighbourhood level. The data available through the MDI Data Dashboard are reported based on children’s home postal codes and include children who completed the MDI in a participating school district or independent school that live within the boundary type selected. 

RELATED: See more information on boundary types

The Technical Guide provides an overview of essential MDI information—MDI Dimensions, Measures, Indices and terminology—and helpful tips for navigating the MDI Data Dashboard. 

At the end of each year of MDI data collection, HELP makes available resources that provide an overview of the trends across grades for “all participating districts.” These resources provide helpful context for the school district, community and neighbourhood-level data available in the MDI Data Dashboard. View the most recent MDI Trends Webinar.  

Learn More about the MDI

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MDI in Brief

The Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI) is a self-report questionnaire that asks children in Grades 4 through 8 about their thoughts, feelings and experiences in school and in the community. It is a unique and comprehensive questionnaire that facilitates a deeper understanding of how children are doing at this stage in their lives. The questionnaire is administered in schools in January–February and is completed online* during class time. 

*Note: In 2021/22, due to the global pandemic and in response to requests from school districts, boards and/or associations, the MDI was administered to a small percentage of children at home or in remote settings.

MDI School District and Community Reports

The MDI Data Dashboard replaces the neighbourhood profiles previously found in MDI School District & Community Reports. School District Reports for participating districts are still available in PDF format and include all reported measures of the MDI such as school experiences, active travel and more at the school district level. School District Reports can be found on the HELP website: MDI Reports*

Note: Only those reports that meet the suppression threshold are publicly available. Contact the MDI team for more information at mdi@help.ubc.ca.

There are some differences in visualization from the PDF report and the Dashboard. Among them are the Well-Being and Assets Indices.

On the PDF report, the Well-Being Index is represented as a wheel graphic. On the Dashboard the Well-Being Index is represented as a grouped bar chart:

On the PDF report, the Assets Index is represented as four squares in varying shades of brown. On the Dashboard the assets may be selected to view individually and are now a single orange colour:

MDI Dimensions, Measures, and Indices

The MDI uses a strengths-based approach to assess five areas of development that are strongly linked to well-being, health, and academic achievement and provide a holistic picture of how children in the middle years are doing at school, at home, and in their community. In addition, the MDI focuses on highlighting the promotive and protective factors and assets that are known to support and optimize development in middle childhood. These areas are: 

Well-Being and Assets Indices

Combining select measures from the MDI helps to paint a more comprehensive portrait of children’s overall well-being and the assets that contribute to their healthy development. The results for key MDI measures are summarized by two indices: The Well-Being Index and the Assets Index.  

Well-Being Index

The Well-Being Index combines MDI measures relating to children’s physical health and social and emotional development that are of critical importance during the middle years. These are: Optimism, Happiness, Self-Esteem, Absence of Sadness and General Health.

Scores from these five measures are combined and reported by three categories of well-being, providing a holistic summary of children’s mental and physical health.

Component Measures of the Well-Being Index

The Well-Being Index combines scores from the following 15 items:  

Assets Index

The Assets Index combines MDI measures that highlight four key assets that help to promote children’s positive development and well-being. Assets are positive experiences, relationships or behaviours present in children’s lives. Assets are considered actionable, meaning that schools and communities can focus their efforts in these areas to create the conditions and contexts where children can thrive.

Notes:
In the 2022/23 reporting year, the MDI questionnaire was changed to ask children about their activities outside of school hours. In previous years, children were asked about their activities only during the hours of 3 pm to 6 pm on school days. As a result, the Out-of-School Activities Asset data are not comparable to the After-School Activities Asset data from previous years.

School Experiences are also considered to be an asset that contribute to children’s well-being; however, this asset is not reported as part of the Assets Index to prevent the ranking of individual schools or sites. Please refer to the School District Reports (PDF version) for data related to School Experiences at the district level: MDI Reports.

Component Measures of the Assets Index

The Assets Index combines scores from the following 23 items: 

MDI Maps

The MDI Data Dashboard displays data from the two indices—the Well-Being Index and Assets Index—using maps. Different school districts participate in MDI data collection each year and participating districts can select which grades (grades 4–8 are available) to administer. For this reason, the maps only show data for the participating school districts and their related neighbourhoods based on the grade and year selected through the navigation panel.  

MDI maps support an exploration of how children’s well-being and assets vary according to school district and neighbourhood contexts. 

Well-Being Index Maps 

The Well-Being Index combines scores from five MDI measures and are reported as high (thriving), medium, and low well-being. While the Dashboard includes data on all outcomes measured by the Well-Being Index, the maps only display the rates of thriving (high well-being), with darker colours representing higher rates of thriving.  

Assets Index Maps 

Asset Index maps represent the percentage of children reporting the presence of each of the four assets of the Assets Index: Adult Relationships, Peer Relationships, Nutrition and Sleep, and After-School Activities (2018–2022) or Out-of-School Activities (2023). The darker the colour, the higher the percentage of children reporting the presence of the Asset. 

RELATED: See more information on how the four assets in the Assets Index are scored.

RELATED: See more information on Component Measures of the Assets Index above.   

How to Use the Maps 

Use the legend to interpret the variability in colour for the Well-Being and Assets maps. Hovering on an area in the map will show the rates for thriving on the Well-Being Index maps and the percentage of children reporting the presence of the asset selected on the four available Assets Maps. Clicking on an area in the map will update the data on the Dashboard to the selected area. 

Note: Grey areas indicate there are no data (i.e., a district did not participate in the year and/or grade selected) or data are suppressed (i.e., fewer than 35 children participated in the grade and year selected, or, the margin of error threshold is reached). More information about suppressed data is below. 

RELATED: See more specific information on maps in the following modules: Well-Being and Assets Indices and Explore within Area. 

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TIP:  Boundary types can also be explored using the maps in the Well-Being and Assets Indices module. You may zoom in and out of the map and by clicking on a desired location, the Dashboard will update to show that location’s data. 

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Suppression

The MDI is a population-based measure. When coverage of the population is low or the population size of an area is very small, data may be suppressed. More specifically, data are suppressed when there are fewer than 35 children in a school district or neighbourhood for confidentiality reasons. The data are also suppressed when the uncertainty of the results (i.e., the margin of error) is greater than 10%, which can result from low coverage, particularly in areas with small populations. 

Margin of Error 

Margin of error is the degree of uncertainty about the exact value of what is being measured, when results are based on samples rather than the whole population. The margin of error for any particular result is a function of both the size of the sample and the size of the population (i.e., the participation rate). Larger populations require a smaller participation rate than smaller populations, to have the same margin of error. At HELP, results are reported when the margin of error is +/-10% or less; otherwise, results are suppressed due to too much uncertainty. 

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Using the MDI Data Dashboard 

When accessing the MDI Data Dashboard for the first time, a guided tour pops up that highlights key features of the Dashboard. Check the “Don’t show this again” box if you do not want the tour to appear every time you visit the Dashboard. To access the guided tour again, click the “Replay Tour” link located in the Dashboard footer. 

Throughout the Dashboard, you will find the following icons beside modules headings and in individual maps and charts within a module:

• – Click on the info icon to reveal more information about a modal or charts.
• – Click on the download icon to download a screen shot of a modal or individual charts for use in presentations.

Navigation Panel 

On the left-hand side of the Dashboard is the navigation panel. The Dashboard is defaulted to “School District” as the Boundary Type and “All Participating Districts” as the Specific Area, with grade 8 and the most current year of data collected pre-selected. 

Boundary Type 

Reporting and mapping MDI data at multiple levels improve our understanding of the broader social and economic factors influencing children’s well-being by highlighting geography-specific patterns and trends. Whether small or large, rural or remote, urban or suburban, communities and neighbourhoods have unique characteristics that provide important context for interpreting and applying MDI data. 

The MDI Data Dashboard allows users to explore MDI data at two “boundary” types – Ministry of Education & Child Care School District boundaries and the related HELP Neighbourhoods*.  

NOTE: 
*HELP Neighbourhood boundaries were created by HELP through meaningful aggregations of census dissemination blocks, postal code boundaries, city planning boundaries, and geographic features. The neighbourhood boundaries were vetted through a community review process and were adjusted when necessary to remain useful for communities. The neighbourhood boundaries were constructed to nest within school district boundaries.  

The data available through the MDI Data Dashboard are reported based on children’s home postal codes and include children who completed the MDI in a participating school district or independent school that live within the boundary type selected. Once a boundary type is selected, MDI data are shown for the location selected along with comparative data from the top-level aggregation (for example, when viewing Neighbourhood data, data from the related School District are provided OR when viewing School District data, data from “all participating districts” from the grade and year selected are provided). 

Grade & Collection Year

School districts are invited to participate in the MDI each school year and participating districts can choose which grades to administer each year—grades 4 to 8 are available. The navigation panel on the Dashboard allows viewers to choose which “Grade” and “Collection Year” they are interested in reviewing. By default, the highest available grade level for the most current year of data available will be the selected. Only the last five years of data are available on the Dashboard. Some school districts have been collecting MDI data for more than the last five years. If you are interested in accessing MDI data from previous years, please contact us MDI@help.ubc.ca.  

Grades

From 2009 to 2020, the MDI was only available for children in grades 4 and 7. As of the 2020–21 school year, grades 5, 6 and 8 were added as options. Now participating districts are able to choose to participate in grades 4–8 and can select to collect across multiple grades as desired. Some school districts also choose to follow cohorts over time—for example, collecting data from students in grades 4 and 7 one year, and then the same group of students in grades 5 and 8 the following year.  

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TIP: Use the MDI School District Participation Over Time resource to see at a glance what years and grades a school district has participated.

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Collection Years

Collection years correspond to the school calendar year (September to June). MDI data are collected in January-February of the school year. For example, if “18-19” is an available collection year, selecting it will display MDI data collected in the 2018-19 school year.  

Notes: The “19-20” MDI data available in the Dashboard was collected in January-February 2020 just prior to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The data available in the Collection Years “18-19” and “19-20” are considered pre-pandemic data. On May 5, 2023, the WHO declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency. The “22-23” MDI data available on the Dashboard were collected just prior to this declaration.  

Some school districts have been collecting MDI data for more than the last five years. If you are interested in accessing MDI data from previous years, please contact us MDI@help.ubc.ca. 

Dashboard Modules 

The MDI Data Dashboard has five modules to explore, each of which is accessed through the side navigation panel or by scrolling down the page. Further information and tips for navigating each of the modules are outlined in the next section.

• Demographics
• Well-Being & Asset Indices
• Component Measures
• Explore within Area
• Resources

Demographics 

Demographic information provides contextual information for the MDI data in the Dashboard. The data available on the MDI Data Dashboard are reported based on children’s home postal codes and include children who completed the MDI in a participating school district or independent school that live within the boundary type selected.

The demographics headline contains the total sample for the specific area, grade and year selected. The total sample refers to the total number of children represented in the data for the categories selected. Children are included in the sample if they complete at least one question and the data are reported.

Languages Spoken at Home 

On the MDI, children are asked, “What is the first language you learned at home?” Children are able to select more than one language spoken at home from a list of languages.

Participating Districts 

School districts choose what grades and how frequently they want to participate in the MDI. Results for large districts tend to be closer to the average for “all participating districts.” The average is based on participating districts and does not represent all school districts in the entire province for the selected grade and year. The Participating Districts chart lists the school districts that participated in MDI data collection for the grade and year selected along with the number of children that completed an MDI questionnaire in each participating district.

For some participating districts, their data are not publicly available on the Dashboard due to suppression. Data are not publicly available when there are fewer than 35 children, for confidentiality reasons. The data are also suppressed when the uncertainty of the results (i.e., margin of error) is greater than 10%, which can result from low coverage particularly in areas with small populations.

Refer to the MDI School District Participation Over Time document for a full list of participating school districts and their participation history for the years of data available on the MDI Data Dashboard.

Well-Being & Asset Indices 

This module highlights data from the Well-Being Index and the Assets Index. Using the sub-menu within the module, select between the Well-Being Index or one of the four assets of the Assets Index.

KEY CONCEPTS IN THIS MODULE — WELL-BEING INDEX VIEW

• Thriving (High Well-Being) — Children who score in the high range on at least 4 of the 5 measures of well-being and have no low-range scores. Also referred to as Thriving Outcome.
• Medium Well-Being — Children who score in the high range on fewer than 4 of the 5 measures of well-being, and have no low-range scores.
• Low Well-Being — Children who score in the low range on at least 1 of the 5 measures of well-being.
• The Assets Index is reported as the percentage of children reporting the presence of an asset.

MAPS & CHARTS IN THIS MODULE — WELL-BEING INDEX VIEW

Map of Thriving — Shows the percentage of children who are thriving (high well-being). Refer to the legend to interpret the variability of colour on each map. Use the zoom feature (+ and – control) to expand or narrow down a view. Hovering on areas of the map to reveal more data and clicking on an area of the map will select it and refresh the Dashboard to data for that selected area.

Well-Being Index Chart — Shows the percentage of children who are thriving or have high (green), medium (yellow), and low (red) well-being.

Range in Thriving Chart — Shows the distribution of children thriving in increasing order within a boundary type. Each bar represents the thriving rate for one area within that boundary type. The black line, which appears when a specific area is selected, indicates the thriving rate for that selected area. The light grey percentages on either end of the chart indicate the rates for the areas with the lowest and highest percentages of children thriving for the selected grade and year.

Thriving Outcome Over Time Chart — Shows the percentage of children thriving over time in a specific area for the selected grade and year. The grey comparison bar represent the average for the boundary type selected. If the boundary type selected is “School District,” the grey bar represents the average for all participating districts. If the boundary type selected is “Neighbourhood,” the grey bars represent the school district average.

All Outcomes Over Time Chart — Shows the percentage of children who have high (green), medium (yellow), and low (red) well-being in the specific area for the selected grade and year over time.

Thriving – All Participating Grades Chart — Shows the percentage of children thriving over time for all participating grades in a specific area for the selected grade and year. Use the legend to the right of the chart to toggle each grade off and on.

KEY CONCEPTS IN THIS MODULE — ASSETS INDEX VIEW

• The Assets Index is reported as the percentage of children reporting the presence of an asset.

MAPS & CHARTS IN THIS MODULE — ASSETS INDEX VIEW

Assets Map — Shows the percentage of children reporting the presence of the selected asset. Refer to the legend to interpret the variability of colour on each map. Use the zoom feature (+ and – control) to expand or narrow down a view. Hovering on areas of the map to reveal more data and clicking on an area of the map will select it and refresh the Dashboard to data for that selected area.

Asset Index Chart — Shows the percentage of children reporting the presence of the selected asset in their lives. The grey horizontal bar represents the average for all participating districts or neighbourhoods depending on the selected boundary type. Hover over the bar charts to see the number of children reporting the presence of the selected asset.

Range in Asset Chart — Shows the distribution of children reporting the presence of the selected asset in increasing order within a boundary type. Each bar represents the rate of children reporting the selected asset for one area within that boundary type. The black line, which appears when a specific area is selected, indicates the rate of children reporting the asset for that selected area. The light grey percentages on either end of the chart indicate the rates for the areas with the lowest and highest percentages of children reporting the presence of the asset for the selected grade and year.

Asset Over Time Chart — Shows the percentage of children who report the presence of the selected asset over time in a specific area for the selected grade and year. The grey comparison bar represent the average for the boundary type selected. If the boundary type selected is “School District,” the grey bar represents the average for all participating districts. If the boundary type selected is “Neighbourhood,” the grey bars represent the school district average.

A note about the Out-of-School Activities Asset: In the 2022/23 reporting year, the MDI questionnaire was changed to ask children about their activities outside of school hours. In previous years, children were asked about their activities only during the hours of 3 pm to 6 pm on school days. As a result, the Out-of-School Activities Asset data are not comparable to the After-School Activities Asset data from previous years.

All Assets Over Time Chart — Shows the percentage of all four assets in one chart view. Use the legend to the right of the chart to toggle each asset off and on.

Asset – All Participating Grades Over Time Chart — Shows the percentage of children reporting the presence of the selected asset over time for all participating grades in a specific area for the selected grade and year. Use the legend to the right of the chart to toggle each grade off and on.

Component Measures 

This module highlights the component measures that make up the Well-Being Index and each asset of the Assets Index. Use the sub-menu to select an Index then select a component measure to view data over time for the selected grade. For more detailed information about component measures, see the content above under the title “MDI in Brief.”

KEY CONCEPTS IN THIS MODULE — WELL-BEING INDEX

• The Well-Being Index combines MDI measures relating to children’s physical health and social and emotional development that are of critical importance during the middle years. These are: Optimism, Happiness, Self-Esteem, Absence of Sadness and General Health. More information can be found above under the title “MDI in Brief.”
• The Well-Being Index component measures are scored as high (green), medium (yellow), and low (red) as shown in the outcomes charts (more information below).

MAPS & CHARTS IN THIS MODULE

Well-Being Index: Component Measure Chart View — Shows the percentage of children reporting the high category for the selected component measure.

Well-Being Index Component Measures All Outcomes Chart — Shows the high (green), medium (yellow) and low (red) outcomes for the selected component measure over time.

Well-Being Index All Component Measures Over Time Chart — Shows the percentage of children with a high score for all Well-Being Index component measures for the selected grade over time.

• Assets Index component measures are not all scored as high, medium, or low. Refer to the component measure description to see what a high category for the component measure is (see content above under the title “MDI in Brief” for details). For example, the Eating Breakfast component measure reports the frequency or number of times children eat breakfast in a week.

CHARTS IN THIS MODULE — ASSETS INDEX

Component Measure Chart (Assets Index) — Shows the percent of children reporting the high category* for the selected component measure.

Component Measure All Outcomes Chart Over Time (Assets Index) — Shows the high (green), medium (yellow) and low (red) outcomes* for the selected component measure over time.

All Component Measures Chart (Assets Index) — Shows the percentage of children with a high score* for all measures in the selected index.

*Not all outcomes for MDI measures are scored as “high,” “medium,” and “low.” For example, the Eating Breakfast measure reports the frequency or number of times children eat breakfast in a week. More information can be found above under the “MDI in Brief” title.

Explore within Area

This module highlights the data of sub-regions “within” a boundary type selected. Select from the Well-being Index or one of the four assets of the Assets Index to see data for all participating districts or all neighbourhoods within a school district for the selected grade and year.

Note: Some smaller school districts do not have neighbourhood sub-regions. In this case, the message “There are no data available for the selected area” will appear under the Explore within Area module title.

MAPS & CHARTS IN THIS MODULE — WELL-BEING INDEX VIEW

Map of Thriving — Shows the percentage of children who are thriving for the sub-regions of the area and the grade and year selected. Refer to the legend to interpret the variability of colour on each map. Use the zoom feature (+ and – control) to expand or narrow down a view. Hovering on areas of the map to reveal more data and clicking on an area of the map will select it and refresh the Dashboard to data for that selected area.

Thriving Charts (Explore within Module) — Shows the thriving rates for the sub-regions of the area and grade and year selected. The vertical grey line represents the average for the selected area.

Well-Being Index All Outcomes Charts (Explore within Module) — Shows the outcome or percentage of children reporting thriving or high (green), medium (yellow), and low (red) well-being for the sub-regions of the area and selected grade and year selected.

MAPS & CHARTS IN THIS MODULE – ASSETS INDEX VIEW

Map of Asset — Shows the percentage of children reporting the presence of the chosen asset for the sub-regions of the area and grade and year selected. Refer to the legend to interpret the variability of colour on each map. Use the zoom feature (+ and – control) to expand or narrow down a view. Hovering on areas of the map to reveal more data and clicking on an area of the map will select it and refresh the Dashboard to data for that selected area.

Asset Charts (Explore within Module) — Shows the percentage of children reporting the chosen asset for the sub-regions of the area and grade and year selected. The vertical grey line represents the average for the selected area.

Resources 

Helpful resources for using the MDI Data Dashboard can be found in this module. Along with this Technical Guide, viewers will find: 

• MDI Overview – Learn  more about the Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI) including information on data collection and key MDI contacts. 
  See MDI overview
• DiscoverMDI – Find information and helpful resources for using MDI data in school districts and across communities – PowerPoint slides, workshop resources, research briefs, examples of MDI data in action and more. 
  See DiscoverMDI
• MDI Provincial Summary – At the end of each year of MDI data collection, HELP makes available resources that provide an overview of the trends across grades for “all participating districts”.
  View the most recent MDI Trends Webinar 
• MDI Reports – PDF versions of MDI School District Reports for the last three school years are available on the HELP Website. These reports include Well-Being and Assets Indices data, along with more detailed data about the component measures of the Indices, school experiences, active transportation and much more. 
  View Reports

Feedback & Technical Issues 

The MDI Data Dashboard is a new HELP reporting approach. We want to hear about your experience using the Dashboard. Please click below to provide feedback, or report any technical issues that you encounter with the performance or functionality about the dashboard. 

Provide Feedback  Report Technical Issues