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Running head: THE VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE SDQThe Validity and Reliability of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
Cédric Badjeck, 2646177
Measurement Theory and Assessment 1
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Jamie Rhiannon Fehribach
Word count: 2716
4-04-2021
,THE VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE SDQ
The Validity and Reliability of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
Mental illnesses in children are difficult to identify because childhood development is a
complex process. According to Erskine et al.(2016), the mean global coverage of prevalence
data for mental disorders in ages 5-17 years is 15%. In Western countries, the rate of mental
disease in children is around 20%. Psychological disorders can negatively influence childhood
development. Therefore, detecting psychological symptoms at an early stage could lead to
better interventions in other to limit the effects of certain mental diseases in adulthood. To
facilitate the detection of psychological symptoms in children a reliable and validated
instrument such as the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is often used. Before
using an instrument, establishing validity and reliability is very important because it helps to
make accurate choices in clinical settings.
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire is a screening instrument that measures
psychopathological symptoms in children and adolescents. Mental health practitioners argue
that it is important to acquire information from multiple informants in other to get accurate
predictions of mental disorders in children (Van den Heuvel et al.,2017). The SDQ seems to
be suitable for this purpose, it exists in different versions and can be completed by children,
parents, or teachers. The SDQ measures 5 subscales: Hyperactivity, Conduct Problems,
Emotional Symptoms, Peer Problems, and Prosocial Behavior (Goodman, 1997). Every 5
subscales contain 5 items with a 3-point scale to indicate how much each item applies to the
child. All items are scored on a scale from 0 to 10 and are combined except the Prosocial
subscale to generate a Total Difficulty Score ranging from 0 to 40.
The aim of this study was to contribute to the reliability and validity of the SDQ. A
validated instrument is an instrument that measures what it is supposed to measure and the
reliability of an instrument is the extent to which an instrument of measure yields the same
result when used repeatedly (Laie, 2013). Despite its brevity, the SDQ has been shown to
have good internal reliability and validity (Goodman, 1997). Internal consistency of the SDQ
has been reported by many studies. Mieloo et al. (2012) have found an internal consistency
reliability score of 0.70 for the Total Problem scale. The other 5 subscales had an internal
consistency of approximately 0.69. According to the COTAN guidelines, a reliability
coefficient of 0.70 is seen as acceptable.
Construct validity is divided into three parts: Convergent validity, discriminant
validity, and criterion validity (Zait, 2011). Convergent validity assumes that instruments
measuring the same construct must be highly correlated. To assess convergent validity, we
, THE VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE SDQ
compared the Hyperactivity subscale of the SDQ with the hyperactivity subscale of Conners’
Parent Rating Scale-Revised-Long (CPRS-RL). The CPRS-RL is an instrument that measures
different behavioral problems in children (Conners et al., 1998). The second type of validity
that we assessed is discriminant validity. According to Zait (2017), discriminant validity
infers that items should correlate higher among each other than they correlate with other items
from other concepts that are theoretically supposed not to correlate with each other. To assess
discriminant validity, we compared the hyperactivity subscale of the SDQ with the subscale
that measures symptoms of ODD of the Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders and
Schizophrenia (K-SADS). The K-SADS is a questionnaire that diagnoses psychological
diseases in children and adolescents (Kaufman et al., 1997). The third type of validity we
assessed is criterion validity. Zait (2017) defines criterion validity as a test’s correlation with a
true outcome. To assess criterion validity, we compared the hyperactivity subscale of the SDQ
with the diagnose of ADHD measured by the K-SADS.
Method Reliability
Sample
The sample consisted of 950 parents who completed the Strength and Difficulties
Questionnaire for their children. 48.2% of the children were male and 51.8% of the children
were female. Their age ranged from 6.12 to 11.64 years with a mean of 9.03 (SD = 1.48).
Materials
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire is a screening instrument that measures
psychopathological symptoms in children and adolescents (Goodman,1997). The SDQ
contains 5 scales with 5 items each (Goodman,1997). The scales consist of the Hyperactivity
subscale, prosocial subscale, emotional symptoms subscale, conduct problem subscale, and
peer relationship subscale. Every 5 subscales contain 5 items with a 3-point scale to indicate
how much each item applies to the child. To assess the reliability of the SDQ, we used the
total problem scale, the hyperactivity subscale, and the prosocial behavior subscale. The
hyperactivity subscale contains items number 2, 10, 15, 21, and 25 and consists of questions
such as “I am easily distracted”. For the hyperactivity subscale, the score can range from 0 to
10. Scoring 0 means that there are no problems and scoring a maximum score of 10 means
that there are considerable problems of hyperactivity behavior. The prosocial subscale
contains items 1, 4, 9, 17, and 20 and consists of questions such as “I am helpful if someone is
hurt”. For the prosocial subscale, the score can range from 0 to 10. Scoring 0 means that there
are no problems and scoring a maximum score of 10 means that there are considerable
problems regarding prosocial behavior. The minimum score of the total problem scale is 0 and
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