Comparing the German versions of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-Deu) and the Child Behavior Checklist

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a brief behavioural s creening questionnaire that can be completed in about 5 minutes by the pare nts and teachers of 4-16 year olds. The scores of the English version corre late well with those of the considerably longer Child Behavior Checklist (C BCL). The present study compares the German versions of the questionnaires. Both SDQ and CBCL were completed by the parents of 273 children drawn from psychiatric clinics (N = 163) and from a community sample (N = 110). The c hildren from the community sample also filled in the SDQ self-report and th e Youth Self Report (YSR). The children from the clinic sample received an ICD-IO diagnosis if applicable. Scores from the parent and self-rated SDQ a nd CBCL/YSR were highly correlated and equally able to distinguish between the community and clinic samples, with the SDQ showing significantly better results regarding the total scores. They were also equally able to disting uish between disorders within the clinic sample, the only significant diffe rence being that the SDQ was better able to differentiate between children with and without hyperactivity-inattention. The study shows that like the E nglish originals, the SDQ-Deu and the German CBCL are equally valid for mos t clinical and research purposes.