This study of the German SDQ-S in a large representative epidemiological sample presents evidence of partly moderate to good psychometric properties. It also supports the usefulness of SDQ-S as an effective and efficient instrument for child and adolescent mental health problems in Germany. German normative banding scores of SDQ-S established in this study were comparable with the original British norms as well as with those of other countries, so that SDQ-S can be recommended as a psychopathological broadband-screening tool.

The principle of distributing health care according to medical need is being challenged by increasing costs. As a result, many countries have initiated a debate on the introduction of explicit priority regulations based on medical, economic and person-based criteria, or have already established such regulations. Previous research on individual attitudes towards setting health care priorities based on medical and economic criteria has revealed consistent results, whereas studies on the use of person-based criteria have generated controversial findings. This paper examines citizens’ attitudes towards three person-based priority criteria, patients’ smoking habits, age and being the parent of a young child. Using data from the ISSP Health Module (2011) in 28 countries, logistic regression analysis demonstrates that self-interest as well as socio-demographic predictors significantly influence respondents’ attitudes towards the use of person-based criteria for health care prioritization. This study contributes to resolving the controversial findings on person-based criteria by using a larger country sample and by controlling for country-level differences with fixed effects models.

Abstract. The internal structure of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) has been widely discussed in the literature. The first purpose of this study was, therefore, to analyze the internal structure of the SDQ as completed by German parents and teachers. Parents and teachers of 1,135 children between the ages of 3 and 6 years in German daycare facilities were asked to complete the SDQ. Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), we found that the original five-factor model with added correlations between items with similar content and allowing cross-loads of reverse-worded items to the prosocial behavior factor is the model that fits the data the best. Additionally, we found significant mean differences between parents and teachers in four of the five SDQ subscales. Nevertheless, to compare the scores across both groups, it is necessary that the SDQ measures social-emotional and behavioral difficulties for both parents and teachers in the same way. Hence, the second purpose of this study was to test for measurement invariance of the SDQ across both groups. Using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA), we found that strict measurement invariance is tenable. Therefore, the observed means of the SDQ scores from parents and teachers are readily comparable and interpretable.

Zusammenfassung. Die interne Struktur des Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) ist kontrovers diskutiert worden. Das erste Ziel der vorliegenden Studie bestand daher in der Überprüfung der internen Struktur der SDQ Jugend- und Elternversion. Auf Basis der Daten der ersten Wiederholungsbefragung der Studie zur Gesundheit von Kindern und Jugendlichen in Deutschland (KiGGS-Studie) wurde mittels konfirmatorischer Faktorenanalysen gezeigt, dass das Fünf-Faktoren-Modell eine gute Anpassungsgüte besitzt, wenn korrelierte Fehlervarianzen zwischen Items mit ähnlichem Inhalt zugelassen werden. Da Skalenmittelwerte aus der SDQ Jugend- und Elternversion häufig miteinander verglichen werden, wurde im zweiten Teil der Analyse geprüft, ob skalare Messinvarianz zwischen beiden SDQ-Versionen besteht. Die Ergebnisse der konfirmatorischen Multi-Gruppen-Faktorenanalysen zeigen, dass der SDQ bei Eltern und Jugendlichen die gleichen Konstrukte erfasst (konfigurale Messinvarianz). Skalare Messinvarianz liegt hingegen nur für 19 der 25 Items vor. Unterschiede in den latenten Skalenmittelwerten zwischen Jugendlichen und Eltern können daher entweder das Ergebnis von tatsächlichen Bewertungsunterschieden darstellen oder sie sind das Resultat der fehlenden skalaren Messinvarianz zwischen beiden SDQ-Versionen. Folglich sollten Unterschiede in den latenten Mittelwerten aus Eltern- und Selbstbeurteilungsversion für Jugendliche mit Vorsicht interpretiert werden.

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