Comparison of parent adolescent scores on Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

Abstract

Background: Child and adolescent psychiatry has benefited from the application of self-report questionnaires because it is short, less costly and easy to apply. So we select the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and evaluate the agreement between the self-report and parent report form.

Materials and Methods: Subjects were 1934 adolescents.11-18 years oldAfter obtaining the samples consent, SDQ parent rated form and self-rated form were filled. The collected data were analyzed using the STATA statistical package version 9.

Results: The adolescents obtained higher total difficulty scores than their parents, but it was not significant (P value = 0.203). Boys had higher total difficulty scores than girls by parent informant (P value = 0.001), but by self-report girls had higher total difficulty scores than boys (P value = 0.42). 11-14 years had higher total difficulty scores by parent report than self-report (P value = 0.42), but 15-18 years had higher total difficulty scores by self-report than parent report (P value = 0.36).

Conclusion: SDQ self-rating from adolescents may contribute better to the diagnostic process in the clinical setting.

Key words: Adolescent, parent, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire