Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)

Clinical intent

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire is used to measure pro-social behaviour, emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity and peer problems.

It's a 25-items measure with 5 subscales of 5 items each. It is usually easiest to score all 5 scales first before working out the total difficulties score. For each of the 5 scales the score can range from 0 to 10 if all items were completed. These scores can be scaled up pro-rata if at least 3 items were completed, e.g. a score of 4 based on 3 completed items can be scaled up to a score of 7 (6.67 rounded up) for 5 items.

Impact supplement

Our calculation supports using a version of the SDQ that includes an ‘impact supplement’, the items on overall distress and impairment can be summed to generate an impact score that ranges from 0 to 10 for parent- and self-report, and from 0 to 6 for teacher-report.

References

[1] Goodman & Goodman. 2009 Strengths and difficulties questionnaire as a dimensional measure of child mental health. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 48(4), 400-403