Abstract
BackgroundThe Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a brief behavioural five factor instrument developed to assess emotional and behavioural problems in children and adolescents. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the psychometric properties for parent and teacher ratings in the Danish version of SDQ for different age groups of boys and girls.MethodsThe Danish versions of the SDQ were distributed to a total of 71,840 parent and teacher raters of 5-, 7- and 10- to 12-year-old children included in four large scale Danish cohorts. The internal reliability was assessed and exploratory factor analyses were carried out to replicate the originally proposed five factor structure. Mean scores and percentiles were examined in order to differentiate between low, medium and high levels of emotional and behavioural difficulties.ResultsThe original five factor structure could be substantially confirmed. The Conduct items however did not solely load on the proposed Conduct scale and the Conduct scale was further contaminated by non-conduct items. Positively worded items tended to load on the Prosocial scale. This was more so the case for teachers than for parents. Parent and teacher means and percentiles were found to be lower compared to British figures but similar to or only slightly lower than those found in the other Nordic countries. The percentiles for girls were generally lower than for boys, markedly so for the teacher hyperactivity ratings.ConclusionsThe study supports the usefulness of the SDQ as a screening tool for boys and girls across age groups and raters in the general Danish population.
Highlights
Mental health problems of children and adolescents occur frequently in the general population with prevalence rates of psychopathology estimated from 7% in rural Brazil and Norway, 10% in Britain and Denmark and up to 15% in Russia and Bangladesh [1,2,3,4,5,6]
In order to screen for mental health disorders in children and adolescents there is a need for instruments to assess for behavioural and emotional problems, which have been validated across cultural settings
The aims of the current study were : 1. to evaluate the internal reliability and the five domains of psychological adjustment supposedly evaluated by the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) by means of principal component analysis, and 2. to evaluate the mean scores and percentiles across age groups, gender and raters
Summary
Mental health problems of children and adolescents occur frequently in the general population with prevalence rates of psychopathology estimated from 7% in rural Brazil and Norway, 10% in Britain and Denmark and up to 15% in Russia and Bangladesh [1,2,3,4,5,6]. A considerable discrepancy has been found between prevalence rates and the number of children being treated through childhood and adolescence This is disturbing as psychopathology developed in childhood shows stability over time and can progress into adult psychiatric disorders. Factors associated with the development of psychopathological disorders include age and gender, socioeconomic markers and family conditions [8]. The strength of these associations may vary between cultural settings. In order to screen for mental health disorders in children and adolescents there is a need for instruments to assess for behavioural and emotional problems, which have been validated across cultural settings. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the psychometric properties for parent and teacher ratings in the Danish version of SDQ for different age groups of boys and girls
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