Furthering the Use of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: Reliability With Younger Child Respondents.

A sample of 917 children, aged 7 to 17 years, their parents, and their teachers each completed the appropriate version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and 120 from each group did so again 2 weeks later. The results indicate that the SDQ demonstrates sound interinformant and test-retest reliability. Younger children, whose self-reports have not been assessed in previous studies, were reliable in their responding, although not as reliable as older children by these measures. However, the internal reliability of the various subscales, in particular, the peer problems subscale, is questionable for both older and younger child respondents. Overall the findings suggest that the SDQ's use may be extended cautiously to include self-report from younger children.