An examination of the convergent and discriminant validity of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.

Abstract

This study examined the factor structure of the parent and teacher versions of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; R. Goodman, 1997) with a sample of first-grade children at risk for educational failure. The 5-factor model previously found in studies using exploratory factor analysis was fit to the data for both parent and teacher questionnaires. Fit indices for both versions were marginally adequate. Model fit was comparable across gender and ethnic groups. Factor fit for the parent questionnaire was invariant across parent educational level. The examination of convergent and discriminant validity included peer evaluations of each SDQ construct. Thus, each of the five constructs was evaluated by three sources (parent, teacher, and child). On the basis of D. T. Campbell and D. W. Fiske's (1959) multitrait-multimethod approach as well as a confirmatory factor analysis using the correlated uniqueness model, the SDQ has good convergent validity but relatively poor discriminant validity. KeywordsStrengths and Difficulties Questionnaire; confirmatory factor analysis; correlated uniqueness model; multitrait-multimethod; validity Several reports have documented the magnitude and range of risk conditions that children and youths confront in their daily lives (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2004). Nearly one in five children in the United States live in poverty and experience the multiple, layered risks associated with poor homes and poor communities (Evans, 2004;U.S. Census Bureau, 2002). As a result of widespread risk conditions and low access to preventive or remedial mental health services, approximately 20% of children living in the United States have a diagnosable mental disorder, and 9% to 13% of children have severe emotional disorders that impair their functioning at home or school (Friedman, Katz-Leavy, Manderscheid, & Sondheimer, 1996). Consequently, at least 25% of children in the United States are at serious risk of not achieving "productive adulthood" (National Research Council, 1993). These statistics on population-level risk among youth, combined with a rapidly expanding array of empirically supported mental health prevention programs, have led to renewed calls for an increased emphasis on deploying empirically supported prevention programs into children's natural settings. The Surgeon General's National Action Agenda for Children's Mental Health (U.S. Public Health Service, 2002) has recommended that prevention programs be embedded into schools and other child-serving institutions, and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has targeted significant resources toward efforts to disseminate such programs into Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jan N. Hughes, 4225 TAMU, College Station, TX 77840-4225. E-mail: jhughes@tamu.edu. Action Editor: Melissa A. Bray. NIH Public Access NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript schools and other community settings. As school psychologists increasingly move into prevention and public ...

A systematic review of evidence for the psychometric properties of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

“…Two [11,33] were excluded as they did not evaluate the original 5-factor structure; the sample size for one was too small [34]; and one did not meet our predefined criteria [35] for convergent validity set out in box 1 (i.e. they looked at convergence of the scores between parent and teacher versions of SDQ, rather than between SDQ and another measure).…”

“…Twenty-seven studies evaluated the structural validity of the SDQ as specified by Goodman, of which 17 used a CFA and were included (Table 3 and Supplementary file 2, median sample size 1068, range 129-56864) [24,35,38,39,43,[45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56]. One study carried out a CFA on each of the SDQ scales and is therefore not included in table 3 [54].…”

“…The two studies evaluating discriminant validity used a Multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) analysis [35,47] comparing scores between dissimilar subscales of the SDQ. Both studies were of fair quality according to COSMIN criteria and reported limited support for the discriminant validity of the SDQ scales.…”

Validity of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in Preschool-Aged Children

“…For example cross-informant, within-subscale correlations have sometimes been no stronger than cross-subscale correlations, 4 suggesting that the intended behaviors are measured with some overlap between constructs. 4,14 A slightly modified version of the SDQ has been developed for preschoolaged (3-4 years old) populations (http://www.sdqinfo.org). Preschool is a valuable time to identify and treat childhood psychopathology, and parent report is likely to provide a particularly informative perspective.…”

Mapping the Social World of Classrooms: A Multi‐Level, Multi‐Reporter Approach to Social Processes and Behavioral Engagement

“…The SDQ is a 25-item measure that focuses on attributes of children's classroom behavior, validated across gender and ethnicity among school age samples (Hill & Hughes, 2007). The SDQ consists of four Difficulties subscales (hyperactivity-inattention, emotional symptoms, conduct problems, peer relationship problems) and one Strengths subscale (prosocial behavior).…”