title: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)--further evidence for its reliability and validity in a community sample of Dutch children and adolescents.
abstract: This study was a first attempt to examine the psychometric properties of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in Dutch youths. A large sample of normal children and adolescents ( N = 562) and their parents completed the SDQ along with a number of other psychopathology measures. Factor analysis of the SDQ yielded five factors that were in keeping with the hypothesised subscales of hyperactivity-inattention, emotional symptoms, peer problems, conduct problems, and prosocial behaviour. Furthermore, internal consistency, test-retest stability, and parent-youth agreement of the various SDQ scales were acceptable. Finally, the concurrent validity of the SDQ was good: that is, its scores correlated in a theoretically meaningful way with other measures of psychopathology. It can be concluded that the psychometric properties of the parent- and self-report version of the SDQ were satisfactory in this Dutch community sample. Moreover, the current data provide further support for the utility of the SDQ as an index of psychopathological symptoms in youths.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical, Clinical, and Experimental Psychology, Maastricht University, P. O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands. p.muris@dep.unimaas.nl
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Muris
authors.forename: Cor
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meesters
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: van den Berg
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000296:Adolescent Psychiatry; D002648:Child; D002665:Child Psychiatry; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology; D009426:Netherlands / Q000208:ethnology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires