Comparing the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Child Behavior Checklist: is small beautiful?

J Abnorm Child Psychol. 1999 Feb;27(1):17-24. doi: 10.1023/a:1022658222914.

Abstract

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a brief behavioral screening questionnaire that can be completed in 5 minutes by the parents or teachers of children aged 4 to 16; there is a self-report version for 11- to 16-year-olds. In this study, mothers completed the SDQ and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) on 132 children aged 4 through 7 and drawn from psychiatric and dental clinics. Scores from the SDQ and CBCL were highly correlated and equally able to discriminate psychiatric from dental cases. As judged against a semistructured interview, the SDQ was significantly better than the CBCL at detecting inattention and hyperactivity, and at least as good at detecting internalizing and externalizing problems. Mothers of low-risk children were twice as likely to prefer the SDQ.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Child
  • Child Behavior Disorders / diagnosis*
  • Child, Preschool
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mother-Child Relations
  • Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Surveys and Questionnaires / standards*