The strengths and difficulties questionnaire among Finnish school-aged children and adolescents

The emotional and behavioural problems of 7- to 15-year-old Finnish childre n and adolescents (n = 735) were assessed in a community population by a br ief screening instrument, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ ). The parent-, teacher- and self-reports of the SDQ were obtained. The res ults show that for the total scores, the inter-rater agreement between the pairs of reports was 0.38-0.44. The internal consistency in all three quest ionnaires was 0.71. Functioning above the 90th percentile of the SDQ total difficulties scores in parent-, teacher- and self-reports was strongly asso ciated with help-seeking variables and problematic behaviour according to p arents. The correlation of the parental SDQ total scores and the Child Beha viour Checklist total scores was 0.75 and the correlation of the self-repor t SDQ total scores with the Youth Self Report total scores was 0.71. The di fferences in sex, grade and informants of the SDQ total difficulties scores are reported. The study gives further evidence of the usefulness of the SD Q as a promising screening instrument for epidemiological research and clin ical purposes.