Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (Child)
Level: Child Level
Type of Tool: Screening Tool
Construct: Challenging behaviors; Child's social-emotional competence
Respondent: Teacher; Parent
Language(s): English; Afrikaans; Arabic; Chinese; Dutch; Farsi; Hindi; Italian; Japanese; Korean; Punjabi; Russian; Spanish; Thai; Urdu; Other
Length: 5-10 minutes; 25 items (plus 31 items for impact supplement, 32 items for follow-up)
Description: A brief mental health screening questionnaire. The optional impact supplement quantifies functional impairment and the follow-up version assesses change over time. This measure can be used to screen an individual child or to gauge the prevalence and impact of behavioral challenges in a classroom.
Subscales: Total difficulties score, prosocial behavior, peer problems, emotional problems, hyperactivity, and conduct problems. In addition, there is an Impact score if the SDQ impact supplement is used
Published Psychometrics? Yes
See for example: Goodman, R., & Scott, S. (1999). Comparing the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Child Behavior Checklist: is small beautiful?. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 27(1), 17-24.
Citation for Tool: Goodman, R. (1997). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: a research note. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 38(5), 581-586.
In the Public Domain? Yes - Available through sdqinfo.org