Interparent Agreement on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A Chinese Study
Year: 2011
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This article reports on the first study to investigate interparent agreement when the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is used to assess school-aged children. It is also the first study conducted in China on agreement between parents reporting on their child. Both parents of 380 girls and 320 boys completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Chinese version). Because reliabilities were poor, the Conduct Problems and Hyperactivity/Inattention subscales were merged to form an Externalizing Problems subscale, and the Peer Problems subscale as an independent variable was omitted from analyses. Consistent with past research, moderate to strong correlations were found between mother and father reports for emotional and behavioral problems, although interparent agreement was better for externalizing problems than internalizing problems for both girls and boys. Mothers reported significantly higher scores than fathers for prosocial behaviors for their sons. Findings suggest that, in general, one parent's report will be similar to the other's when the SDQ is used in the form adapted for this study. More work on the psychometric properties of the SDQ is needed in China.
Authors: David Mellor, Jessica Wong, Xiaoyan Xu
Institutions: Deakin University, Sichuan Normal University
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2016357289