Reliability of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire among Finnish 4–9-year-old children

Borg, Anne-Mari; Kaukonen, Pälvi; Salmelin, Raili; Joukamaa, Matti; Tamminen, Tuula

doi:10.3109/08039488.2012.660706

Cited by 36 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Overall, this study indicates that there seems to be a relative advantage of doing the assessment with, rather than without the SDQ. This is in accordance with previous studies, showing the successful use of teacher assessments in preschool using SDQs in other countries [36–38]. However, the relative advantage of using SDQ is not apparent regarding equity: not all parents completed the parent SDQs and even fewer brought the SDQ to the preschool.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Exploring Nurses’, Preschool Teachers’ and Parents’ Perspectives on Information Sharing Using SDQ in a Swedish Setting – A Qualitative Study Using Grounded Theory

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Evidence-based methods to identify behavioural problems among children are not regularly used within the Swedish Child healthcare. A new procedure was therefore introduced to assess children through parent- and preschool teacher reports using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). This study aims to explore nurses’, preschool teachers’ and parents’ perspectives of this new information sharing model. Using the grounded theory methodology, semi-structured interviews with nurses (n = 10) at child health clinics, preschool teachers (n = 13) and parents (n = 11) of 3-, 4- and 5-year-old children were collected and analysed between March 2014 and June 2014. The analysis was conducted using constant comparative method. The participants were sampled purposively within a larger trial in Sweden. Results indicate that all stakeholders shared a desire to have a complete picture of the child's health. The perceptions that explain why the stakeholders were in favour of the new procedure—the ‘causal conditions’ in a grounded theory model—included: (1) Nurses thought that visits after 18-months were unsatisfactory, (2) Preschool teachers wanted to identify children with difficulties and (3) Parents viewed preschool teachers as being qualified to assess children. However, all stakeholders had doubts as to whether there was a reliable way to assess children’s behaviour. Although nurses found the SDQ to be useful for their clinical evaluation, they noticed that not all parents chose to participate. Both teachers and parents acknowledged benefits of information sharing. However, the former had concerns about parental reactions to their assessments and the latter about how personal information was handled. The theoretical model developed describes that the causal conditions and current context of child healthcare in many respects endorse the introduction of information sharing. However, successful implementation requires considerable work to address barriers: the tension between normative thinking versus helping children with developmental problems for preschool teachers and dealing with privacy issues and inequity in participation for parents.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Exploring Nurses’, Preschool Teachers’ and Parents’ Perspectives on Information Sharing Using SDQ in a Swedish Setting – A Qualitative Study Using Grounded Theory

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Even subtle effects of PFASs exposure may shift the distribution of continuous behavioral traits to increase the risk of clinical neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders and ADHD (Bellinger 2004; Grandjean and Landrigan 2014). We relied on a questionnaire for parent-reported behavioral difficulties with excellent psychometric properties (Croft et al 2015; Woerner et al 2004b), and with common usage clinical practice as a screening and/or assessment tool by both school psychologists and clinicians (Borg et al 2012; Goodman 1999; Yao et al 2009). The SDQ has also been successfully used to assess children’s behavior across age and culture, and is commonly used in research studies, including longitudinal birth cohorts and national surveys (Chittleborough et al 2011; Griffiths et al 2011; Oulhote and Bouchard 2013; Russell et al 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral difficulties in 7-year old children in relation to developmental exposure to perfluorinated alkyl substances

Oulhote

Steuerwald

Debes

et al. 2016

Environment International

104

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are suspected endocrine disruptors that are highly persistent and neurotoxic in animals. Human epidemiological studies of exposure-related deviations of children’s behaviors are sparse. We assessed the associations between prenatal, 5- and 7-year PFAS exposures and behavioral problem scores in 7-year Faroese children. Methods Concentrations of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), and perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA), perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS) were measured in maternal serum and in serum from children at ages 5 and 7 years (n=539, 508, and 491, respectively). We used multivariable regressions and structural equations models to estimate the covariate-adjusted associations between serum-PFAS concentrations and behavioral difficulties, as assessed by the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) at age 7. Results Serum-PFOS and PFHxS concentrations declined over time, whereas PFOA, PFNA, and PFDA tended to increase. No associations were observed between prenatal PFAS concentrations and SDQ scores. However, a two-fold increase in 5-year serum-PFOA, PFNA, and PFDA concentrations was associated with increases in total SDQ scores by 1.03 (95% CI: 0.11, 1.95), 0.72 (95% CI: 0.07, 1.38) and 0.78 points (95% CI: 0.01, 1.55), respectively. For SDQ subscales, significant associations were found in regard to hyperactivity, peer relationship, and conduct problems, as well as internalizing and externalizing problems and autism screening composite scores. Cross-sectional analyses at age 7 years showed possible sex-dimorphic associations between PFAS concentrations and SDQ scores, where girls had consistently positive associations with SDQ scores whereas boys exhibited a pattern of negative or null associations. Conclusions Higher serum PFAS concentrations at ages 5- and 7-years, but not prenatally, were associated with parent-reported behavioral problems at age 7.

show abstract

“…Six studies assessed test-retest reliability of the SDQ (sample size median 592, range 34-2091, Table 6) [11,25,38,40,63,70]. In most cases, the methodological quality of the studies was fair.…”

Section: Test-retest Reliabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Kersten

Czuba

McPherson

et al. 2015

International Journal of Behavioral Development

111

140

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: A systematic review aiming to identify and critically appraise evidence for the validity and reliability of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in pre-school children (aged 3-5). Method:The review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta- Results: 41 studies were included (56 manuscripts). Two qualitative studies examined content and cultural validity, revealing issues with some questions. Six studies discussed language validations and recommended some changes to the wording. Evidence for discriminative validity was good (Area Under the Curve ≥ 0.80) as was evidence for convergent validity (weighted average correlation coefficients ≥0.50), except for the Pro-social scale. There was limited support for discriminant validity but good evidence for the 5-factor structural validity of the tool. One study demonstrated measurement invariance across ethnicity. Sensitivity was below 70% and specificity above 70% in most studies that examined this. One study showed that caseness indicators varied between countries. Internal consistency of the total difficulty scale was good (weighted average Cronbach's alpha parents' and teachers' version 0.79 and 0.82) but weaker for other subscales (weighted average parents' and teachers' range 0.49-0.69 and 0.69-0.83). Inter-rater reliability between parents was moderate (correlation coefficients range 0.42-0.64) and between teachers strong (range 0.59-0.81). Cross-informant consistency was weak to moderate (weighted average correlation coefficients range 0.25-0.45).Test-retest reliability was mostly inadequate. One study demonstrated moderate size effect sizes.Conclusions: Evidence for a number of psychometric properties is strong. However, the lack of evidence for test-retest reliability, cultural validity and criterion validity should be addressed given the wide-spread implementation of the tool in routine clinical practice, including in New Zealand. Furthermore, the moderate level of consistency between different informants indicate that an assessment of a pre-schooler should not rely on a single informant.

show abstract

Reliability of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire among Finnish 4–9-year-old children

Cited by 36 publications

References 27 publications

Exploring Nurses’, Preschool Teachers’ and Parents’ Perspectives on Information Sharing Using SDQ in a Swedish Setting – A Qualitative Study Using Grounded Theory

Exploring Nurses’, Preschool Teachers’ and Parents’ Perspectives on Information Sharing Using SDQ in a Swedish Setting – A Qualitative Study Using Grounded Theory

Behavioral difficulties in 7-year old children in relation to developmental exposure to perfluorinated alkyl substances

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

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About