Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) – teachers

Abstract

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)—Teacher Version is a widely used, brief psychological scale designed to screen for behavioral, emotional, and social difficulties, as well as positive attributes (strengths) in children and adolescents. Developed by Robert Goodman, the teacher-report form offers a crucial external perspective for identifying potential mental health issues and evaluating treatment outcomes in educational settings. It consists of 25 items divided into five distinct subscales, providing a quick yet comprehensive profile of the child’s functioning.

The SDQ is notable for its inclusion of an impact supplement, which assesses the chronicity, distress, and impairment caused by the identified difficulties across critical life domains, such as learning and peer relationships. This additional information aids professionals in determining the clinical severity and likelihood of psychiatric caseness.

Keywords

SDQ, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, child behavioral screening, teacher report, emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity, prosocial behaviour, child psychology.

Authors

Robert Goodman, H. Meltzer, V. Bailey.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the SDQ Teacher Version is to provide educators and clinicians with a standardized, efficient instrument to quickly assess the mental health status and psycho-social adjustment of students. It serves as a robust screening tool to identify children who may be at risk for specific psychological disorders, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or conduct disorder, thereby facilitating timely referral for professional assessment and intervention.

In addition to identifying difficulties, the SDQ uniquely measures positive attributes via the prosocial subscale. The included impact supplement allows the rater (the teacher) to quantify how much the reported difficulties interfere with the child’s everyday life and put a burden on the class or group as a whole. This comprehensive approach is highly valuable for epidemiological research, clinical audits, and measuring intervention effectiveness.

Construct

The SDQ measures 25 attributes, 20 of which relate to difficulties and 5 to strengths. These items are distributed across five principal subscales, which collectively define the psychological constructs assessed by the instrument.

• Emotional Symptoms: Measures internalizing problems, including anxiety, worries, unhappiness, depression, and somatic complaints (e.g., headaches or stomach-aches).
• Conduct Problems: Measures externalizing, disruptive behaviors, such as temper loss, fighting, bullying, lying, and cheating.
• Hyperactivity/Inattention: Measures characteristics related to restlessness, constant fidgeting, impulsivity, and difficulties with sustained concentration.
• Peer Relationship Problems: Measures difficulties in social interaction, covering issues such as being solitary, being picked on or bullied by others, or lacking good friendships.
• Prosocial Behaviour: Measures positive social attributes, including kindness, helpfulness, sharing, and consideration of others’ feelings. This score is considered a measure of strength.

The scores from the four difficulty subscales (Emotional Symptoms, Conduct Problems, Hyperactivity/Inattention, and Peer Relationship Problems) are summed to generate a Total Difficulties score.

Validity

The SDQ has demonstrated strong cross-cultural validity and is highly correlated with other established behavioral rating scales. Studies, including those validating the initial versions, confirm the instrument’s concurrent and discriminant validity across various populations and informant types (Goodman et al., 1998).

The teacher-report version exhibits high predictive validity for identifying children requiring professional mental health services. The ability of the scale to differentiate between children in the general population and those with clinical diagnoses (i.e., identifying psychiatric caseness) is well-established, making it a reliable tool for large-scale epidemiological investigations.

Reliability

The reliability of the SDQ Teacher Version is generally considered strong. Internal consistency, typically assessed using Cronbach’s alpha, is robust for the overall Total Difficulties score, often exceeding 0.80 across diverse samples.

While some individual subscales, particularly the Peer Problems scale, may show slightly lower internal consistency due to their limited item count, the scale as a whole demonstrates acceptable psychometric soundness. Test-retest reliability, indicating the stability of the measurement over time, has been shown to be strong for teacher ratings, reflecting the consistent nature of observed behavior in the school environment.

Factor Analysis

Factor analytical studies consistently support the theoretical five-factor model underpinning the SDQ structure (Emotional Symptoms, Conduct Problems, Hyperactivity/Inattention, Peer Relationship Problems, and Prosocial behaviour). This structure is widely accepted for interpreting the scores of the standard 25-item questionnaire.

Research has also explored broader dimensionality. Goodman, Lamping, and Ploubidis (2010) found that, depending on the research objective, using broader internalizing (combining Emotional Symptoms and Peer Problems) and externalizing (combining Conduct Problems and Hyperactivity) subscales might be appropriate, particularly when comparing data across different informants (parents, teachers, and children) where correlations between the five factors can sometimes be high.

Instrument

Test Type: Screening Questionnaire / Behavioral Rating Scale

Format: 25 items (plus an optional impact supplement). Items are rated on a 3-point Likert scale.

Language Available: The SDQ has been translated and validated in over 100 languages worldwide.

Population Group: Children and Adolescents.

Age Group: Typically used for children aged 4–17 years.

Population Details: Used to assess mental health difficulties and strengths in school-age populations across clinical, research, and educational settings.

Test Methodology: The teacher rates the child based on their behavior and emotional state observed during a specified recent period (usually the preceding six months).

Keywords

Mental health screening, total difficulties score, clinical impairment, externalizing problems, internalizing problems, behavior rating, psychological scale.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A

Correspondence Address: N/A

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire is generally available free of charge for academic, research, and non-commercial clinical use. Commercial use or large-scale clinical implementation may require formal permission or licensing. The core validation work for the teacher version was published in 1998.

Test Year: 1998 (Based on the validation study by Goodman, Meltzer, and Bailey).

Further information and specific versions of the SDQ can be found at the official instrument website: http://www.sdqinfo.com/

Reference’s

• Goodman R (1997) The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A Research Note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38, 581-586.
• Goodman R, Meltzer H, Bailey V (1998) The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A pilot study on the validity of the self-report version. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 7, 125-130.
• Goodman R (1999) The extended version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire as a guide to child psychiatric caseness and consequent burden. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40, 791-801.
• Goodman A, Lamping DL, Ploubidis GB (2010) When to use broader internalising and externalising subscales instead of the hypothesised five subscales on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): data from British parents, teachers and children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38, 1179-1191.

Items of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) – teachers

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

1.    Considerate of other people’s feelings

2.    Restless, overactive, cannot stay still for long

3.    Often complains of headaches, stomach-aches or sickness

4.    Shares readily with other children, for example toys, treats, pencils

5.    Often loses temper

6.    Rather solitary, prefers to play alone

7.    Generally well behaved, usually does what adults request

8.    Many worries or often seems worried

9.    Helpful if someone is hurt, upset or feeling ill

10.Constantly fidgeting or squirming

11.Has at least one good friend

12.Often fights with other children or bullies them

13.Often unhappy, depressed or tearful

14.Generally liked by other children

15.Easily distracted, concentration wanders

16.Nervous or clingy in new situations, easily loses confidence

17.Kind to younger children

18.Often argumentative with adults

19.Picked on or bullied by other children

20.Often offers to help others (parents, teachers, other children)

21.Can stop and think things out before acting

22.Can be spiteful to others

23.Gets along better with adults than with other children

24.Many fears, easily scared

25.Good attention span, sees work through to the end

Do you have any other comments or concerns?

Overall, do you think that this child has difficulties in any of the following areas:emotions, concentration, behavior or being able to get on with other people?

No, Yes minor difficulties, Yes definite difficulties, Yes severe difficulties

If you have answered “Yes”, please answer the following questions about these difficulties:

• How long have these difficulties been present? Less than a month, 1-5 months, 6-12 Months, Over a year
• Do the difficulties upset or distress your child? Not at all, Only a little, A medium amount, A great deal
• Do the difficulties interfere with the child’s everyday life in the following areas?

PEER RELATIONSHIPS: Not at all, Only a little, A medium amount, A great deal

LEARNING: Not at all, Only a little, A medium amount, A great deal

• Do the difficulties put a burden on you or the class or group as a whole? Not at all, Only a little, A medium amount, A great deal

18. Often lies or cheats

21. Thinks things out before acting

22. Steals from home, school or elsewhere

6. Would rather be alone than with other youth

14. Generally liked by other youth

18. Often lies or cheats

19. Picked on or bullied by other youth

20. Often offers to help others (parents, teachers, children)

21. Thinks things out before acting

22. Steals from home, school or elsewhere

23. Gets along better with adults than with other youth

1. Readily approaches children he/she does not know

2. Hits, bites, or pinches other children

3. Has no energy, feels tired

4. Does not want to sleep alone

5. When mad at someone, says bad things behind the other’s back

6. Is shy with children he/she does not know

7. Is nervous, high-strung, or tense

8. Reacts in an aggressive manner when contradicted or teased

9. Is not as happy as other children

10.Clings to adults or is too dependent

11.Scares other children to get what he/she wants

12.Has trouble enjoying him/herself

13.Gets very upset when separated from parents

14.Does not seem to feel badly after misbehaving

15.Takes a long time getting used to being with children he/she does not know

16.Has your child been seen by a psychologist or psychiatrist in the last 12 months? Yes, No

1) emotional symptoms, 2) conduct problems, 3) hyperactivity/inattention, 4) peer relationship problems and 5) prosocial behaviour

Not True, Somewhat True, Certainly True