Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): Scoring and Interpretation Guide

About this resource

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was developed by Robert Goodman and published in 1997 as a brief behavioural screening questionnaire for children and young people aged roughly 4 to 17. It has 25 items divided equally across five scales: emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity and inattention, peer relationship problems, and prosocial behaviour. Four of the scales are summed to give a total difficulties score; the prosocial scale is reported separately as a strength. Parent and teacher versions exist for children aged 4 to 17 (with a variant for 2 to 4 year olds), and a self-report version for young people aged 11 to 17.

An extended version adds an impact supplement asking whether the respondent thinks the young person has a difficulty and, if so, how long it has lasted, how much it upsets the child, how much it interferes with home life, friendships, learning and leisure, and how much of a burden it places on the family. This makes the SDQ unusual among brief screens in capturing impairment as well as symptoms. Follow-up versions ask additionally whether things have improved since the last assessment and whether the intervention has helped, which makes the SDQ a practical routine outcome measure.

The SDQ is one of the most widely used child mental health questionnaires in the world and is available in many languages. It is copyrighted by Robert Goodman and may be downloaded free of charge from the official website for non-commercial use, but it may not be modified or reproduced in other forms, so the items are not listed here. This guide covers structure, scoring, bands, psychometrics, session use and limitations. The professional version adds the scoring rules and the caution about interpreting single subscale scores.

How to use it

1. Download the appropriate version from the official SDQ website: parent and teacher forms for children aged 4 to 17, or the self-report form for young people aged 11 to 17. Use the version with the impact supplement at assessment and the follow-up version to monitor outcomes.
2. Score each of the five scales by summing its five items (0 to 10 each), reversing the scoring on the items that are worded positively, according to the official scoring instructions. Sum the emotional, conduct, hyperactivity and peer scales for the total difficulties score (0 to 40). Report the prosocial score separately.
3. Score the impact supplement by summing the items about distress and interference; the questions about duration and burden are not included in the impact score.
4. Compare each score with the published bands for that version and informant, and look at the pattern across subscales rather than only the total.
5. Gather forms from more than one informant where possible, discuss differences openly, and repeat the follow-up version at agreed intervals to track change.

References

• Goodman, R. (1997). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38(5), 581-586.
• 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.
• 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(5), 791-799.