Does the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire - self report yield invariant measurements across different nations? Data from the International Child Mental Health Study Group.
OBJECTIVE
This study evaluated the measurement invariance of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) self-report among adolescents from seven different nations.


METHODS
Data for 2367 adolescents, aged 13-18 years, from India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Serbia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Croatia were available for a series of factor analyses.


RESULTS
The five-factor model including original SDQ scales emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity-inattention problems, peer problems and prosocial behaviour generated inadequate fit degree in all countries. A bifactor model with three factors (i.e., externalising, internalising and prosocial) and one general problem factor yielded adequate degree of fit in India, Nigeria, Turkey and Croatia. The prosocial behaviour, emotional symptoms and conduct problems factor were found to be common for all nations. However, originally proposed items loaded saliently on other factors besides the proposed ones or only some of them corresponded to proposed factors in all seven countries.


CONCLUSIONS
Due to the lack of a common acceptable model across all countries, namely the same numbers of factors (i.e., dimensional invariance), it was not possible to perform the metric and scalar invariance test, what indicates that the SDQ self-report models tested lack appropriate measurement invariance across adolescents from these seven nations and it needs to be revised for cross-country comparisons.
Clinic for Neurology and Psychiatry for Children and Youth,Belgrade,Serbia.
D
D
Stevanovic
Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University,Budapest,Hungary.
R
R
Urbán
Department of Behavioral Medicine,Lagos State University College of Medicine Ikeja,Lagos,Nigeria.
O
O
Atilola
School of Psychology,Leicester University,Leicester,UK.
P
P
Vostanis
Department of Psychiatry,All India Institute of Medical Sciences,Ansari Nagar,New Delhi,India.
Y P
YP
Singh Balhara
Faculty of Psychology,State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah,Jakarta,Indonesia.
M
M
Avicenna
Department of Child and Adolescents psychiatry,Harran University,Sanliurfa,Turkey.
H
H
Kandemir
Department of psychiatry,University Hospital Centre Rijeka,Rijeka,Croatia.
R
R
Knez
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,School of Medicine,University of Split,Split,Croatia.
T
T
Franic
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,University Hospital St. Marina,Varna,Bulgaria.
P
P
Petrov
Adolescent; culture; invariance; psychopathology