Psychometric properties of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire from five European countries

Abstract

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.

New evidence of factor structure and measurement invariance of the SDQ across five European nations

“…This issue does not imply that SDQ cannot be used for in-country assessments. Recent studies have found similar results, indicating that the structure of the SDQ self-reported version in adolescents was non-invariant across cultures [38,39]. For instance, in the study of Essau et al [38] with five European countries, the factorial equivalence of the SDQ was rejected in the five and the three dimensional models tested.…”

“…Nonetheless, the review of the literature shows that there are few studies of measurement invariance in the self-reported version of the SDQ [19,11,27,26,38,39].…”

“…Previous studies have analyzed the MI of the SDQ, self-reported version in adolescents, across different variables (e.g., gender, age, race/ethnicity, and income) [19,11,26,[38][39][40]. As yet, there has been no in-depth examination addressing the question of whether the dimensional structure underlying the SDQ scores is invariant across countries.…”

“…As yet, there has been no in-depth examination addressing the question of whether the dimensional structure underlying the SDQ scores is invariant across countries. To the best of our knowledge, few studies have addressed this question [39,38,27]. For instance, Essau et al [38], with a sample of 2418 adolescents, found that the factorial structure of the SDQ differed across five European countries (Cyprus, England, Sweden, Germany, and Italy).…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, few studies have addressed this question [39,38,27]. For instance, Essau et al [38], with a sample of 2418 adolescents, found that the factorial structure of the SDQ differed across five European countries (Cyprus, England, Sweden, Germany, and Italy). Another important study, conducted by Stevanovic et al [39], did not find an acceptable model in countries from Europe, Asia, and Africa (India, Nigeria, Turkey, Croatia, Indonesia, Bulgaria, and Serbia).…”