The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Self-Report: a valid instrument for the identification of emotional and behavioral problems (original) (raw)
2016
The Encuesta Nacional de Salud España 2006 [Spain National Health Survey 2006], conducted with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (Goodman, 1997), indicated that between 19.2 and 26.6% of Spanish children and adolescents between the ages of 4 and 15 years old were at risk of mental health problems (Fajardo, León, Felipe, & Ribeiro, 2012). Previous studies carried out in Spain show similar prevalence rates of behavioural and emotional symptoms and disorders, both in the general population (Blanco et al., 2015; Bones, Pérez, Rodríguez-Sanz, Borrell, & Obiols, 2010; Haro et al., 2006) and in the child population (Cuesta et al., 2015; Diaz de Neira et al., 2015; Fonseca-Pedrero, Paino, Lemos-Giraldez, & Muñiz, 2012; Ortuño, Fonseca-Pedrero, Paino, & Aritio-Solana, 2014). Considering the possible methodological differences, these rates are similar to those found in epidemiological studies worldwide (Olfson, Blanco, Wang, Laje, & Correll, 2014; Polanczyk, Salum, Sugaya, Ca...
2019
Original Research Article Emotional and behavioral problems in children have emerged as a public health problem in Developing countries. Only few studies are done on the issue. Published evidence emphasizes the benefits of early interventions to prevent behavioral and emotional problems and poor school performance. Understanding of the epidemiology of behavioral and emotional disorders in children is a prerequisite for developing management plan and prevention strategy. Standardized questionnaires for measuring psychopathological symptoms in children has been Developed. The Strength and Difficulties questionnaire is a useful instrument to aid clinicians in diagnosis and could be used as part of the initial assessment process. The aim of study was to screen 5-11 year old school children in Dhaka city for emotional and behavioral problems using Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). A crosssectional study conducted during the period of January 2010 to December 2010 among 196 s...
Objective: Assess the screening efficiency of the caretaker-report CBCL and SDQ in community and clinical samples using published data. Methods: PyschInfo, Medline, and EMBASE were systematically searched to identify studies with appropriate efficiency data. Estimates of sensitivity and specificity were extracted from identified studies and used to generate summary likelihood ratio estimates on which the scales were compared. Summary estimates of sensitivity and specificity were calculated with respect to a ÔtrueÕ diagnosis to compare scales. Results: A total of 29 and 3 studies met inclusion criteria for CBCL and SDQ respectively. Summary estimates of the likelihood ratios for domains assessed by CBCL ranged from 3.86 (2.23, 6.69) to 4.87 (2.90, 8.18); and for SDQ from 5.02 (1.61, 15.63) to 8.32 (2.72, 25.48). Heterogeneity was low. For total problems, the SDQ caretaker-report was found to be most specific (0.93, 95% CI 0.92, 0.94) and the CBCL caretaker-report to be most sensitive (0.66, 95%CI 0.60, 0.73). Conclusions: This meta-analysis supports continued use of the CBCL and SDQ via caretaker-report in clinical and community samples. Additional research is required to determine if there is a true difference in efficiency between the two scales. Key Practitioner Message: • Published data on the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) indicate that both are efficient screeners for the identification of psychiatric disorders in youth. • Systematic reviews are a useful method for examining the utility of symptom scales to assess youth mental health disorders. • Dimensional symptom scales can be used to help identify areas of difficulty associated with mental health disorders in children and adolescents.
Development of Emotional and Behavioral Problems Scale for Adolescents
Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research, 2022
Funding information Fonds NutsOhra This retrospective longitudinal study in young children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) aimed to identify if, and how early problems in behavior, intelligence, and language development are associated with later behavioral problems. At the first assessment at preschool age, we evaluated language skills, intelligence, and emotional and behavioral problems as reported by parents. The second assessment at school-age we evaluated intelligence, and emotional and behavioral problems as reported by parents and teachers. Association of baseline assessments with secondary assessment was evaluated using multivariable linear regression analysis. Of the 61 patients (25 males, 36 females; mean age 4;5 years [SD 1;1 years]) with NF1 who had a first assessment, 38 children (21 males, 17 females; mean age 7;11 years [SD 2;1 years]) had a second assessment after a mean period of 3;5 years. Longitudinal data on behavioral problems were collected for 23 of these children. Intelligence and language development were not associated with internalizing problems. Parent-rated internalizing behavioral problems significantly increased with age in this subgroup. Baseline internalizing problems predicted later internalizing problems (adjusted R 2 = 0.33, p = 0.003). The presence of these problems at preschool age may be predictive of internalizing problems at a later age.
Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 2014
ABBREVIATIONS ADHD Attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder ASDs Autism spectrum disorders DAWBA Development and Well-Being Assessment SDQ Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire AIM This study investigated the diagnostic accuracy of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in a population of children born extremely preterm (<26wks gestation). METHOD Parents and teachers of 219 extremely preterm children (118 females, 101 males; age 11y ) were asked to complete the SDQ to screen for psychological problems. Multiinformant ratings were aggregated using two methods: combined (parent or teacher rated the child with problems) and pervasive (parent and teacher rated the child with problems). Psychiatric diagnoses were assigned using the Development and Well-Being Assessment. Pervasive ratings had the greatest diagnostic accuracy for emotional disorders (89%), conduct disorders (94%), attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; 90%), and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs; 94%), but were associated with low sensitivity (≤50%). For clinical use, combined ratings were best for detecting emotional disorders (sensitivity 77%, specificity 75%), conduct disorders (83%, 88%), and ADHD (85%, 72%). Parent ratings were best for ASDs (93%, 66%). Teacher ratings significantly improved prediction over parent ratings alone for conduct disorders (Δv 2 =9.3, p=0.002) and ADHD (Δv 2 =24.1, p<0.001) only. INTERPRETATION Multi-informant data are preferable for assessing most mental health outcomes using the SDQ. As an outcome measure, pervasive ratings have the best predictive accuracy. For screening, combined ratings are best for detecting ADHD and emotional and conduct disorders. For ASDs, parent ratings were best.
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2000
The Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA) is a novel package of questionnaires, interviews, and rating techniques designed to generate ICD-10 and DSM-IV psychiatric diagnoses on 5-ldyear-olds. Nonclinical interviewers administer a structured interview to parents about psychiatric symptoms and resultant impact. When definite symptoms are identified by the structured questions, interviewers use open-ended questions and supplementary prompts to get parents to describe the problems in their own words. These descriptions are transcribed verbatim by the interviewers but are not rated by them. A similar interview is administered to 1 l-16-year-olds. Teachers complete a brief questionnaire covering the main conduct, emotional, and hyperactivity symptoms and any resultant impairment. The different sorts of information are brought together by a computer program that also predicts likely diagnoses. These computer-generated summary sheets and diagnoses form a convenient starting point for experienced clinical raters, who decide whether to accept or overturn the computer diagnosis (or lack of diagnosis) in the light of their review of all the data, including transcripts. In the present study, the DAWBA was administered to community ( N = 491) and clinic ( N = 39) samples. There was excellent discrimination between community and clinic samples in rates of diagnosed disorder. Within the community sample, subjects with and without diagnosed disorders differed markedly in external characteristics and prognosis. In the clinic sample, there was substantial agreement between DAWBA and case note diagnoses, though the DAWBA diagnosed more comorbid disorders. The use of screening questions and skip rules greatly reduced interview length by allowing many sections to be omitted with very little loss of positive information. Overall, the DAWBA successfully combined the cheapness and simplicity of respondent-based measures with the clinical persuasiveness of investigator-based diagnoses. The DAWBA has considerable potential as an epidemiological measure, and may prove to be of clinical value too.
Children Mental Health Problems: Parent Report Form of Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire
2008
Objective: This study was performed to evaluate the mental health status of 6 -11 year-old children of Tehran in a community-based sample using the Persian version of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) Parent-report. Method: Parents of 799 children (6 to 11 years old) were selected from 250 clusters of the entire 22 municipality areas of Tehran; they responded to 25 questions of the Persian version of SDQ parent-report form. The mean score in each subscale and the frequency of each symptom domains based on the Goodman's cutoff points, were determined. Results: The prevalence of symptom domain was relatively high. Among the studied children, 25.8% had total score equal to 17 or more. The most frequent problem domain was conduct. The studied boys had statistically significant higher mean scores in hyperactivity and peer problem subscales. Conclusion: Frequency of all the problem symptom domains was high in children from different urban areas of Tehran. Further evaluation for the reason of such a high frequency is necessary.
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1998
This paper reviews some of the characteristics of the informants as well as some of the attributes of the DICA-R interview that could influence the test-retest reliability in a sample of 109 psychiatric outpatients aged 7-17 years. Different regression models using reliability coefficients constructed from the kappa statistic were obtained. Of those characteristics evaluated in the children, a high level of psychological impairment proved to be significant when it came to predicting the lowest test-retest reliability of the answers ; none of the subject-related characteristics were significant in the adolescent patient model. The attributes of the questions that proved to be significant when explaining the lower reliability obtained for the individual question in the children's model were the length of the questions (longest questions), the content (internalising), the presence of time concepts, comparison with the peer group, and the need to exercise judgement ; in the adolescents' model, the significant attributes were found to be the internalising content, the presence of time concepts, evaluation concerning the impairment caused by the disorder, and the need to exercise judgement. In the group of children our results are in accordance with the original paper. Similar results were found with adolescents. These findings have implications for the development and revision of new interview schedules.
Background: Discrepancies between multiple informants often create considerable uncertainties in delivering services to youth. The present study assessed the ability of the parent and youth scales of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to predict mental health problems/disorders across several mental health domains as validated against two contrasting indices of validity for psychopathology derived from the Development and Well Being Assess‑ ment (DAWBA): (1) an empirically derived computer algorithm and (2) expert based ICD‑10 diagnoses. Methods: Ordinal and logistic regressions were used to predict any problems/disorders, emotional problems/disor‑ ders and behavioural problems/disorders in a community sample (n = 252) and in a clinic sample (n = 95). Results: The findings were strikingly similar in both samples. Parent and youth SDQ scales were related to any prob‑ lem/disorder. Youth SDQ symptom and impact had the strongest association with emotional problems/disorder and parent SDQ symptom score were most strongly related to behavioural problems/disorders. Both the SDQ total and the impact scores significantly predicted emotional problems/disorders in males whereas this was the case only for the total SDQ score in females. Conclusion: The present study confirms and expands previous findings on parent and youth informant validity. Clini‑ cians should include both parent and youth for identifying any mental health problems/disorders, youth information for detecting emotional problems/disorders, and parent information to detect behavioural problems/disorders. Not only symptom scores but also impact measures may be useful to detect emotional problems/disorders, particularly in male youth.
Adolescent Outcomes of Childhood Disorders: The Consequences of Severity and Impairment
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 1999
ObJective: To examine the adolescent consequences of clinical and threshold-level psychiatric disorders , with and without significant functional impairment ; to predict serious emotional disturbance (SED: clinical-level diagnosis with impairment); and to examine sex differences in the consequences of emotional and behavioral disorders . Method: 300 children aged 7 through 11 years were recruited from urban and suburban offices of a large health maintenance organization (HMO). Child and parent were interviewed at home using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC), version 1.3. Five to 7 years later, 278 (93%) of the sample were reinterviewed using the DISC-2 .1. Results: There was considerable continuity of psychopathology, particularly in children with functional impairment. Behavioral disorders at every level of severity predicted adolescent SED in both sexes. For emotional disorders. girls but not boys with childhood SED had significantly higher levels of adolescent SED. Conclusions: Childhood disorders falling below the level of severity required to meet criteria for treatment set by many HMOs or insurance companies nevertheless can carry a significantly increased risk for severe pathology years later. Functional impairment played an important role in the adolescent consequences of childhood psychiatr ic disorder.