THE STRENGTHS AND DIFFICULTIES QUESTIONNAIRE - A PILOT-STUDY ON THE VALIDITY OF THE SELF-REPORT VERSION

The self-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnair e (SDQ) was administered to two samples of 11-16 year olds: 83 young p eople in the community and 116 young people attending a mental health clinic. The questionnaire discriminated satisfactorily between the two samples. For example, the clinic mean for the total difficulties scor e was 1.4 standard deviations above the community mean, with clinic ca ses being over six ti:mes more likely to have a score in the abnormal range. The correlations between self-report SDQ scores and teacher- or parent-rated SDQ scores compared favourably with the average cross-in formant correlations In previous studies of a range of measures. The s elf-report SDQ appears promising and warrants further evaluation.