Introduction: Considering the current controversy regarding the factorial structure of the SDQ, this paper aimed to analyse the dimensionality and reliability of the parents’ version for children from 4 to 16 years of age, and to present descriptive data according to sociodemographic variables. Method: The factor structure of the original five- and three-factor models, and the reliability of the SDQ were examined among a sample of 621 parents of Uruguayan children between 7 and 12 years of age (52% girls) from different socioeconomic levels. Results: Confirmatory factor analyses did not provide support for the five- and three-factor models. Data adjusted to three factors (prosociality, externalising symptoms, internalising symptoms) in an exploratory analysis with adequate reliability indices. Conclusions: The results of this study show the relevance of continued investigation of the SDQ internal structure, and further analysis of the behaviour of several of its items.

Keywords:
Psychometric properties, SDQ, factor structure, reliability, symptomatology, children, screening

16_RLP_55_23234_Strengths

Allkoja, B. (2018). Psychometric properties of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in a sample of Albanian elementary school children. Materia Socio-Medica, 30(3), 164-169. https://doi.org/10.5455/msm.2018.30.164-169

Asselmann, E., Wittchen, H. U., Lieb, R., & Beesdo-Baum, K. (2018). Sociodemographic, clinical, and functional long-term outcomes in adolescents and young adults with mental disorders. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 137(1), 6-17. https://doi.org/10.1111/acps.12792

Barican, J. L., Yung, D., Schwartz, C., Zheng, Y., Georgiades, K., & Waddell, C. (2022). Prevalence of childhood mental disorders in high-income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis to inform policymaking. Evidence-Based Mental Health, 25(1), 36-44. https://doi.org/10.1136/ebmental-2021-300277

Bergström, M., & Baviskar, S. (2021). A systematic review of some reliability and validity issues regarding the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire focusing on its use in out-of-home care. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 18(1), 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/26408066.2020.1788477

Björnsdotter, A., Enebrink, P., & Ghaderi, A. (2013). Psychometric properties of online administered parental strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ), and normative data based on combined online and paper-and-pencil administration. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 7(40). https://doi.org/10.1186/1753-2000-7-40

Boman, F., Stafström, M., Lundin, N., Moghadassi, M., Törnhage, C. J., & Östergren, P. O. (2016). Comparing parent and teacher assessments of mental health in elementary school children. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 44(2), 168-176. https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494815610929

Bryant, A., Guy, J., CALM Team, & Holmes, J. (2020). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire predicts concurrent mental health difficulties in a transdiagnostic sample of struggling learners. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 587821. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.587821

Caci, H., Morin, A. J., & Tran, A. (2015). Investigation of a bifactor model of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 24(10), 1291-1301. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-015-0679-3

Castillo, M., & Ortuño, V. (2018). Estudio estructural del Cuestionario de capacidades y dificultades (SDQ) en niños de 2 a 4 años de Montevideo y Canelones [Trabajo final de grado, Universidad de la República, Uruguay].

Deighton, J., Croudace, T., Fonagy, P., Brown, J., Patalay, P., & Wolpert, M. (2014). Measuring mental health and wellbeing outcomes for children and adolescents to inform practice and policy: A review of child self-report measures. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 8, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1186/1753-2000-8-14

Duarte, C., Hoven, C., Berganza, C., Bordin, I., Bird, H., & Miranda, C. T. (2003). Child mental health in Latin America: Present and future epidemiologic research. The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 33(3), 203-222. https://doi.org/10.2190/4WJB-BW16-2TGE-565W

Español-Martín, G., Pagerols, M., Prat, R., Rivas, C., Sixto, L., Valero, S., Artigas, M. S., Ribasés, M., Ramos-Quiroga, J. A., Casas, M., & Bosch, R. (2021). Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: Psychometric properties and normative data for Spanish, 5- to 17-year-olds. Assessment, 28(5), 1445-1458. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191120918929

Ferrando, P. J., Lorenzo-Seva, U., Hernández-Dorado, A., & Muñiz-Fernández, J. (2022). Decálogo para el análisis factorial de los ítems de un test. Psicothema, 34(1), 7-17. https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2021.456

Freiberg, A., Stover, J., de la Iglesia, G., & Fernández-Liporace, M. (2013). Correlaciones policóricas y tetracóricas en estudios factoriales exploratorios y confirmatorios. Ciencias Psicológicas, 7(2), 151-164. https://doi.org/10.22235/cp.v7i1.1057

Gadermann, A., Guhn, M., & Zumbo, B. (2012). Estimating ordinal reliability for Likert-type and ordinal item response data: A conceptual, empirical, and practical guide. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 17(3), 1-13.

Garrido, L. E., Barrada, J. R., Aguasvivas, J. A., Martínez-Molina, A., Arias, V. B., Golino, H. F., Legaz, E., Ferrís, G., & Rojo-Moreno, L. (2020). Is small still beautiful for the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire? Novel findings using Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling. Assessment, 27(6), 1349-1367. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191118780461

Gómez, R., & Stavropoulos, V. (2019). Parent ratings of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: What is the optimum factor model? Assessment, 26(6), 1142-1153. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191117721743

Gómez-Beneyto, M., Nolasco, A., Moncho, J., Pereyra-Zamora, P., Tamayo-Fonseca, N., Munarriz, M., Salazar, J., Tabarés-Seisdedos, R., & Girón, M. (2013). Psychometric behaviour of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) in the Spanish national health survey 2006. BMC Psychiatry, 13(95). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-13-95

Goodman, R. (1997). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 38(5), 581-586. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1997.tb01545.x

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, and Allied Disciplines, 40(5), 791-799. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00494

Goodman, R. (2001). Psychometric properties of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40(11), 1337-1345. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-200111000-00015

Goodman, R. (n.d.). Downloadable SDQs and related items. https://www.sdqinfo.org/py/sdqinfo/b0.py

Goodman, R., Ford, T., Simmons, H., Gatward, R., & Meltzer, H. (2000). Using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to screen for child psychiatric disorders in a community sample. The British Journal of Psychiatry: The Journal of Mental Science, 177(6), 534-539. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.177.6.534

Goodman, A., Lamping, D. L., & Ploubidis, G. B. (2010). When to use broader internalizing and externalizing subscales instead of the hypothesized five subscales on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): Data from British parents, teachers and children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38(8), 1179-1191. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-010-9434-x

Goodman, A., Patel, V., & Leon, D. A. (2010). Why do British Indian children have an apparent mental health advantage? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 51(10), 1171-1183. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02260.x

Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2019). Multivariate data analysis (8th ed.). Cengage.

Harry, M. L., Acevedo, J., & Crea, T. M. (2019). Assessing the factor structure of the Spanish language parent Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in Honduras. Plos One, 14(3), e0214394. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214394

Hawes, D. J. & Dadds, M. R. (2004). Australian data and psychometric properties of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 38(8), 644-651. https://doi.org/10.1080/j.1440-1614.2004.01427.x

Hoffmann, M. D., Lang, J. J., Guerrero, M. D., Cameron, J. D., Goldfield, G. S., Orpana, H. M., & de Groh, M. (2020). Evaluating the psychometric properties of the parent-rated Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in a nationally representative sample of Canadian children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years. Health Reports, 31(8), 13-20. https://doi.org/10.25318/82-003-x202000800002-eng

Hoosen, N., Davids, E. L., de Vries, P. J., & Shung-King, M. (2018). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in Africa: A scoping review of its application and validation. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 12(6). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-017-0212-1

Hooper, D., Coughlan, J., & Mullen, M. (2008). Structural equation modelling: Guidelines for determining model fit. Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 6(1), 53-60. https://doi.org/10.21427/D7CF7R

Hu, L.T., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118

Jackson, D. L., Gillaspy, J. A., & Purc-Stephenson, R. (2009). Reporting practices in confirmatory factor analysis: An overview and some recommendations. Psychological Methods, 14(1), 6-23. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014694

Karlsson, P., Larm, P., Svensson, J., & Raninen, J. (2022). The factor structure of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire in a national sample of Swedish adolescents: Comparing 3 and 5-factor models. Plos One, 17(3), e0265481. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265481

Kline, R. B. (2015). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (4ª ed.). Guildford Press.

Kóbor, A., Takács, Á., & Urbán, R. (2013). The bifactor model of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 29(4), 299-307. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000160

Kulawiak, P. R., Wilbert, J., Schlack, R., & Börnert-Ringleb, M. (2020). Prediction of child and adolescent outcomes with broadband and narrowband dimensions of internalizing and externalizing behavior using the child and adolescent version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Plos One, 15(10), e0240312. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240312

Lorenzo-Seva, U., & Ferrando, P. J. (2019). Robust Promin: A method for diagonally weighted factor rotation. Liberabit, 25(1), 99-106. https://doi.org/10.24265/liberabit.2019.v25n1.08

Lorenzo-Seva, U., & Van Ginkel, J. R. (2016). Imputación múltiple de valores perdidos en el análisis factorial exploratorio de escalas multidimensionales: estimación de las puntuaciones de rasgos latentes. Anales de Psicología, 32(2), 596-608. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.32.2.215161

Lloret-Segura, S., Ferreres-Traver, A., Hernández-Baeza, A., & Tomás-Marco, I. (2014). El análisis factorial exploratorio de los ítems: una guía práctica, revisada y actualizada. Anales de Psicología, 30(3), 1151-1169. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.30.3.199361

McAloney-Kocaman, K., & McPherson, K. (2017). Factor structure and reliability of the parent-informant Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in a Scottish preschool sample. Early Education and Development, 28(3), 368-376. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2017.1228367

Mellor, D., & Stokes, M. (2007). The factor structure of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 23(2), 105-112. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759.23.2.105

Moriwaki, A., & Kamio, Y. (2014). Normative data and psychometric properties of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire among Japanese school-aged children. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1753-2000-8-1

Murray, A. L., Speyer, L. G., Hall, H. A., Valdebenito, S., & Hughes, C. (2021). Teacher versus parent informant measurement invariance of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 46(10), 1249-1257. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsab062

Murray, A. L., Speyer, L. G., Hall, H. A., Valdebenito, S., & Hughes, C. (2022). A longitudinal and gender invariance analysis of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire across ages 3, 5, 7, 11, 14, and 17 in a large U.K.-representative sample. Assessment, 29(6), 1248-1261. https://doi.org/10.1177/10731911211009312

Ortuño-Sierra, J., Aritio-Solana, R., & Fonseca-Pedrero, E. (2018). Mental health difficulties in children and adolescents: The study of the SDQ in the Spanish National Health Survey 2011-2012. Psychiatry Research, 259, 236-242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.10.025

Paula, C. S., Coutinho, E. S., Mari, J. J., Rohde, L. A., Miguel, E. C., & Bordin, I. A. (2015). Prevalence of psychiatric disorders among children and adolescents from four Brazilian regions. Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria, 37(2), 178-179. https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2014-1606

Perera, M. & Cazulo, P. (2016). Índice de Nivel Socioeconómico. Propuesta de actualización. Centro de Investigaciones Económicas (CINVE).

Percy, A., McCrystal, P., & Higgins, K. (2008). Confirmatory factor analysis of the Adolescent Self-Report Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 24(1), 43-48. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759.24.1.43

Sanne, B., Torsheim, T., Heiervang, E., & Stormark, K. M. (2009). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in the Bergen child study: A conceptually and methodically motivated structural analysis. Psychological Assessment, 21(3), 352-364. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016317

Saur, A. & Lourreiro, S. (2012). Qualidades psicométricas do Questionário de Capacidades e Dificuldades: Revisão da literatura. Estudos de Psicología (Campinas), 29(4), 619-629. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0103-166×2012000400016

Schreiber, J., Nora, A., Stage, F., Barlow, E., & King, J. (2006). Reporting structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis results: A review. The Journal of Educational Research, 99(6), 323-338. https://doi.org/10.3200/JOER.99.6.323-338

Shibata, Y., Okada, K., Fukumoto, R., & Nomura, K. (2015). Psychometric properties of the parent and teacher forms of the Japanese version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Brain & Development, 37(5), 501-507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.braindev.2014.08.001

Smedje, H., Broman, J. E., Hetta, J., & von Knorring, A. L. (1999). Psychometric properties of a Swedish version of the “Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire”. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 8(2), 63-70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s007870050086

Solmi, M., Radua, J., Olivola, M., Croce, E., Soardo, L., Salazar de Pablo, G., Shin, J., Kirkbride, J., Jones, P., Han Kim, J., Yeob Kim, J., Carvalho, A., Seeman, M., Correll, Ch., & Fusar-Poli, P. (2021). Age at onset of mental disorders worldwide: Large-scale metaanalysis of 192 epidemiological studies. Molecular Psychiatry, 27(1), 281-295. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-021-01161-7

Stolk, Y., Kaplan, I., & Szwarc, J. (2017). Review of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire translated into languages spoken by children and adolescents of refugee background. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 26(4), e1568. https://doi.org/10.1002/mpr.1568

Stone, L. L., Otten, R., Engels, R. C., Vermulst, A. A., & Janssens, J. M. (2010). Psychometric properties of the parent and teacher versions of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for 4- to 12-year-olds: A review. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 13(3), 254-274. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-010-0071-2

Timmerman, M. E. & Lorenzo-Seva, U. (2011). Dimensionality assessment of ordered polytomous items with parallel analysis. Psychological Methods, 16(2), 209-220. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023353

Tobia, V. & Marzocchi, G. M. (2018). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire-Parents for Italian school-aged children: Psychometric properties and norms. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 49(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-017-0723-2

United Nations Children’s Fund (2022). On My Mind. How adolescents experience and perceive mental health around the world. https://www.unicef.org/media/119751/file/Companion20report:20Adolescents.pdf

van Leeuwen, K., Meerschaert, T., Bosmans, G., De Medts, L., & Braet, C. (2006). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in a community sample of young children in Flanders. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 22(3), 189-197. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759.22.3.189

van Roy, B., Veenstra, M., & Clench-Aas, J. (2008). Construct validity of the five-factor Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in pre-, early, and late adolescence. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49, 1304-1312. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.01942.x

Vicente, B., Saldivia, S., de la Barra, F., Kohn, R., Pihan, R., Valdivia, M., Rioseco, P., & Melipillan, R. (2012). Prevalence of child and adolescent mental disorders in Chile: A community epidemiological study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53(10), 1026-1035. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2012.02566.x

Viola, L., Garrido, G. & Varela, A. (2007). Estudio epidemiológico sobre la salud mental de los niños uruguayos. GEGA.

World Health Organization. (2021). Salud del adolescente y del joven adulto. https://www.who.int/es/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/adolescents-health-risks-and-solutions