ArticleJournal of abnormal child psychology2013
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): the factor structure and scale validation in U.S. adolescents.
Article in Journal of abnormal child psychology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 94 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
94 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 228 citations in OpenAlex.
- Overview of Ten Child Mental Health Clinical Outcome Measures: Testing of Psychometric Properties with Diverse Client Populations in the U.S.Administration and policy in mental health · 2022Pooled it
- Two meta-analyses of the association between atopic diseases and core symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.Scientific reports · 2022Pooled it
- Emotional and behavioural difficulties in children and adolescents with hearing impairment: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2015Pooled it
- Minimally important change on the Columbia Impairment Scale and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in youths seeking mental healthcare.BMJ mental health · 2025Trial
- Moderators of long-term treatment outcome when comparing two group interventions for adolescents with ADHD: who benefits more from DBT-based skills training?BMC psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Evaluation of a structured skills training group for adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a randomised controlled trial.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Does Giving Parents Their Choice of Interventions for Child Behavior Problems Improve Child Outcomes?Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2019Trial
- What can we learn from a failed trial: insight into non-participation in a chat-based intervention trial for adolescents with psychosocial problems.BMC research notes · 2014Trial
- Measurement Equivalence of an ADHD Screening Tool Across Diverse Racial and Ethnic Children.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2026Article
- Understanding the neurobehavioural impact of Duchenne muscular dystrophy: A multicentre European study.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- The Validity and Reliability of the Reading Anxiety Test (RAT) for Children and Adolescents.Assessment · 2026Article
- Internalising problems and engagement among preschool children: trajectories of several functional outcomes in a Swedish longitudinal study.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Development and Comparability of Internalizing and Externalizing Symptom Spectra From Adolescence to Young Adulthood.International journal of methods in psychiatric research · 2026Article
- Contribution of Emotion Dynamics to Adolescent Psychosocial Well-Being: Protocol for a Longitudinal Study.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Association between physical and mental health in school-going adolescents: Sex-specific patterns of maladjustment in formative years of life.PLOS mental health · 2026Article
- Development of an ecological, immersive approach to socio-moral reasoning assessment in virtual reality.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Temporal change in the prevalence and etiology of youth antisocial behavior.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2025Article
- Development and validation of the Post-COVID Symptom Scale for Children/Youth (PCSS-C/Y).European journal of pediatrics · 2024Article
- Emotional problems across development: examining measurement invariance across childhood, adolescence and early adulthood.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2024Article
- Coping Power at the REACH School Network: A pilot feasibility study.Paediatrics & child health · 2024Article
34 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is one of the most commonly used instruments for screening psychopathology in children and adolescents. This study evaluated the hypothesized five-factor structure of the SDQ and examined its convergent validity against comprehensive clinical diagnostic assessments. Data were derived from the National Comorbidity Survey - Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A), a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents aged 13 to 18 years. Parents/parent surrogates (n=6,483) was asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire including the SDQ and DSM-IV comprehensive diagnostic information on the participating adolescents. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to assess the factor structure of the SDQ. The five-factor solution of the SDQ (including emotional, conduct, hyperactivity-inattention, peer relationship, and prosocial) provided a satisfactory fit to the data, and was invariant across sex, age, race/ethnicity and income subgroups. SDQ scores predicted a significantly increased probability of meeting criteria for a DSM-IV disorder, with better prediction for behavior disorders than for mood disorders. Decreasing the SDQ cutoffs to the 80th percentile significantly increased the sensitivity from 39% to 63% for the SDQ Total Difficulties Score, with an expected decrease in specificity from 93% to 87%. This work confirms the five-factor structure of the SDQ in an ethnically and sociodemogrpahically diverse community sample of adolescents. Our findings strengthen empirical evidence for the use of the parent-reported SDQ as a screening tool for DSM-IV behavioral and emotional disorders in adolescents identified in the general population.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.