The Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a brief screening instrument for assessing emotional and behavioural problems in children and adolescents. This study examined the factor structure and validity of the self-report original English version of the SDQ and four of its many translations (German, Cypriot Greek, Swedish, and Italian). A total of 2418 adolescents from five European countries (Germany, Cyprus, England, Sweden, Italy), ages 12 to 17 years, participated. The sample was drawn from general (school) populations. In addition to the SDQ, all participants completed the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS), a measure of anxiety symptoms. The internal consistency and validity of the SDQ total difficulties were good for most countries. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that both five- and three-factor models provided good fit for the whole sample; however, the three-factor model fit somewhat better than the five-factor model. The factor structure differed across countries, with the three-factor model showing better fit indices in Cyprus, whereas the five-factor model fitted better in Germany. Fit indices for the UK, Sweden, and Italy were poor for both models. When the reversed items were removed, the goodness-of-fit improved significantly for the total sample and in each country. It is therefore recommended that the reversed items be removed or re-worded in future studies.

This article analyzes and critiques some of the ''truth claims'' of positive psychology by applying Foucault's concepts of power=knowledge, discipline, and governmentality. It illustrates how positive psychology deploys mechanisms to devalue, subjugate, and discredit humanistic psychology. It also illustrates how positive psychology privileges particular modes of functioning by classifying and categorizing character strengths and virtues, supporting a neo-liberal economic and political discourse. Last, it offers an alternative position to the prescriptive and constraining ideology of positive psychology. Such a position enables a meta-perspective and reflexivity that could sustain a flexible approach to understanding key issues like human happiness and wellbeing, as well as open the way for a more productive, rather than adversarial, dialogue, with humanistic psychology.Since its official inception in the millennial issue of the American Psychologist, positive psychology has sought to redress the balance in psychology from a preoccupation with illness and pathology toward a ''new science'' based on positive subjective experiences, positive individual traits, and positive institutions (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, p. 8). The impact of positive psychology, according to Martin Seligman and others (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005), has been to unite scattered and disparate lines of theory and research about what makes life most worth living. In uniting these disparate lines, Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi claim that

Adult men ( n = 582) and women ( n = 765) from six nations (Spain, Peru, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States) completed two reliable and valid measures of chronic procrastination. Because both arousal and avoidant procrastination types were significantly related across the entire sample ( r = .72, p < .001) and within each national sample, regression analyses calculated “pure” arousal and “pure” avoidant procrastinators, controlling for the scale scores of the other scale. Results indicated no significant sex or nationality differences within and between nations on self-reported arousal or avoidant procrastination. Overall, 13.5% and 14.6% of men and women self-identified as either arousal or avoidant procrastinators, respectively. These findings suggest that the tendency toward frequent delays in starting or completing tasks may be prevalent across diverse populations in spite of their distinct cultural values, norms, and practices.

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