Revising the self-report strengths and difficulties questionnaire for cross-country comparisons of adolescent mental health problems: the SDQ-R

Abstract

Aims The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) has been used in many epidemiological studies to assess adolescent mental health problems, but cross-country comparisons of the self-report SDQ are scarce and so far failed to find a good-fitting, common, invariant measurement model across countries. The present study aims to evaluate and establish a version of the self-report SDQ that allows for a valid cross-country comparison of adolescent self-reported mental health problems. Methods Using the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study, the measurement model and measurement invariance of the 20 items of the self-report SDQ measuring adolescent mental health problems were evaluated. Nationally representative samples of 11-, 13- and 15-year old adolescents (n = 33 233) from seven countries of different regions in Europe (Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia) were used. Results In order to establish a good-fitting and common measurement model, the five reverse worded items of the self-report SDQ had to be removed. Using this revised version of the self-report SDQ, the SDQ-R, partial measurement invariance was established, indicating that latent factor means assessing conduct problems, emotional symptoms, peer relationships problems and hyperactivity-inattention problems could be validly compared across the countries in this study. Results showed that adolescents in Greece scored relatively low on almost all problem subscales, whereas adolescents in Poland scored relatively high on almost all problem subscales. Adolescents in the Netherlands reported the most divergent profile of mental health problems with the lowest levels of conduct problems, low levels of emotional symptoms and peer relationship problems, but the highest levels of hyperactivity-inattention problems. Conclusions With six factor loadings being non-invariant, partial measurement invariance was established, indicating that the 15-item SDQ-R could be used in our cross-country comparison of adolescent mental health problems. To move the field of internationally comparative research on adolescent mental health forward, studies should test the applicability of the SDQ-R in other countries in- and outside Europe, continue to develop the SDQ-R as a cross-country invariant measure of adolescent mental health, and examine explanations for the found country differences in adolescent mental health problems.

Prenatal and early postnatal phthalate exposure and child neurodevelopment at age of 7 years – Polish Mother and Child Cohort

“…sdqinfo.com, parent reported) (Goodman and Scott, 1997). SDQ is a 25-item questionnaire that consists of four subscales measuring mental health problems (conduct problems, emotional symptoms, peer relationship problems, hyperactivity-inattention problems) and one subscale measuring strengths (prosocial behaviour) (Duinhof et al, 2019).…”

Psychosocial Factors and Chronic Illness as Predictors for Anxiety and Depression in Adolescence

“…This aspect is even more crucial when we consider the presence of a CD during this period. Various studies (Chen et al, 2020;Duinhof et al, 2020; evaluate the impact of these variables on emotional 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 Disease •, presence of condition; •, absence of condition; ∼, absence of condition. Expected vector for anxiety and depression: 1.0.1.0.0.0 (0: absent; 1: present).…”

“…In response to the comparison between the two data analysis methodologies, most studies in the health sphere have focused on analyzing the levels of anxious and depressive symptoms using linear models (Cobham et al, 2020;Duinhof et al, 2020;Kim et al, 2020;Navarro-Pardo et al, 2012) such as SEM, but they have barely studied the aspects related to this symptomatology using other non-linear relationship analyses, and examined the combination of two complementary methodologies such as SEM and QCA. This combination of methodologies gives us the opportunity to study the relationship between the variables analyzed in much more depth.…”

“…This aspect is even more crucial when we consider the presence of a CD during this period. Various studies ( Chen et al, 2020 ; Duinhof et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020 ) evaluate the impact of these variables on emotional adjustment in a linear fashion. However, there are virtually no studies that address these issues by comparing SEM and QCA methodologies, and those involving a comparative study of these variables considering the presence or absence of a CD in adolescence are even scarcer.…”

“…Psychological problems in adolescence are the main cause of morbidity and disability during this period, suicide being the third most common cause of mortality among adolescents (World Health Organization [WHO], 2018). In addition, having psychological problems in childhood is associated with an increased likelihood of suffering from it in adulthood (Navarro-Pardo et al, 2012;Gaete, 2015;Duinhof et al, 2020).…”