Background One of every five children and adolescents in the European Union suffers from behavioural, and emotional disturbances. Objectives To compare factors associated with the quality of life and mental health of immigrant and Spanish children aged 4–14 years both during the years 2006 and 2012 and to evaluate changes over this time period. Design and Methods An epidemiologic age and sex matched case-control study (1:2) was conducted. The study group were 677 immigrant children and 1354 matched Spanish children (controls). This study was conducted using data obtained from the Spanish National Health Surveys done in 2006 and 2012. We used the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to obtain the score for variables derived from mental health and the Kidscreen-10 questionnaire to score the Health-Related Quality of Life. Results Spanish girls scored higher in conduct problems (2.04 ± 0.1) and better in problems with peers (1.21 ± 0.08) regarding immigrant girls (1.82 ± 0.12–1.92 ± 0.13 respectively). Concerning total scores, immigrant children obtained significantly lower scores in quality of life (81.29 ± 0.76) and in problems with peers (2.04 ± 0.09) than their matched Spanish children (84.4 ± 0.45 and 1.26 ± 0.06) in 2006. Immigrant children had lower total scores in prosocial behaviour (8.62 ± 0.11) compared to the matched Spanish children (8.92 ± 0.06) in 2012. The total average scores of immigrant children in terms of quality of life, emotional symptoms, behavioural problems, hyperactivity and problems with peers were significantly better in 2012 (86.58; 1.84; 1.46; 3.77 and 1.48 respectively) than in 2006 (81.29; 2.15; 1.90; 4.58 and2.04). Conclusions Immigrant children had a poorer quality of life and mental health than matched Spanish children in 2006. © 2017 Elsevier Inc.

School children Immigrant Behaviour problems Mental health conduct disorder Quality of life

nonparametric test mental health human Statistics, Nonparametric Confidence Intervals comparative study Health Surveys ethnology Mental Disorders mental disease Confidence interval quality of life Humans migrant psychology Adolescent male Emigrants and Immigrants Spain preschool child female Child, Preschool Case-Control Studies case control study Child health survey