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. 2017 Apr 28;12(4):e0176605.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176605. eCollection 2017.

How reliable and valid is the teacher version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in primary school children?

Meta van den Heuvel  1 , Danielle E M C Jansen  2 , Roy E Stewart  2 , Bouwien C M Smits-Engelsman  3 , Sijmen A Reijneveld  2 , Boudien C T Flapper  1
Affiliations

How reliable and valid is the teacher version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in primary school children?

Meta van den Heuvel et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Introduction: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is validated for parents, but not yet for teachers in a broad age range of children. We conducted a cross-sectional study with 4-10 years old school children to investigate if the SDQ-T can be used instead of the validated but lengthy Teacher's Report Form (TRF) to acquire information about emotional and behavioral problems in the school community.

Methods: Teachers of 453 children from primary schools were approached. Teachers of 394 children (response rate 86.9%) with a mean age of 7.1 years filled in the SDQ-T (n = 387), the TRF (n = 349) or both (n = 342). We assessed reliability by calculating internal consistency and concurrent validity (using correlation coefficients, sensitivity, specificity) of the SDQ-T compared with the TRF.

Results: Internal consistency of the SDQ-T Total Difficulties Score (SDQ-T TDS; Cronbach α = 0.80), hyperactivity/ inattention- (α = 0.86) and prosocial behavior (α = 0.81) was very good. Concurrent validity demonstrated a strong correlation of all subscales of the SDQ-T with the corresponding scale on the TRF (range 0.54-0.73), except for peer problems (0.46). Using a SDQ-T TDS cut-off score > 14, the SDQ-T had a good sensitivity (90%) and specificity (94%).

Discussion: The good reliability, validity and brevity of the SDQ-T make it an easily applicable questionnaire for obtaining information about emotional and behavioral problems from teachers in primary school children.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Flow chart for data collection.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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