Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire SDQ Teacher
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire SDQ Teacher overview
Creator and Context
The teacher completed Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is the classroom informant version of Robert Goodman's 25 item behavioural screening questionnaire, first published in 1997.
It uses the same items and structure as the parent version, but is rated by a teacher and interpreted against teacher specific bands. The SDQ is copyrighted and distributed by Youthinmind, and electronic versions require prior authorisation.
Presenting Conditions
The same five scales of five items each:
Emotional symptoms
Conduct problems
Hyperactivity and inattention
Peer relationship problems
Prosocial behaviour, which is not included in the total
The first four scales sum to Total Difficulties. The teacher impact supplement is shorter than the parent and self report versions.
Administration
Self completed by the teacher. Items are rated Not True (0), Somewhat True (1) or Certainly True (2), covering the last six months or this school year. A follow up version with a one month window is available for tracking change.
Desired Audience
Teachers of children and young people aged 4 to 17.
The teacher report is what makes the SDQ genuinely multi informant. Behaviour that a parent never sees, and behaviour a young person only shows at home, both surface when you put the teacher, parent and self report side by side.
Considerations
A screening tool, not a diagnostic one.
Teacher bands differ from parent and self report bands. Do not apply one threshold set across informants.
The teacher impact supplement has fewer scored items than the parent version, so impact scores are not directly comparable across informants.
Norms are invalid if someone helps the respondent choose answers.
Electronic implementation requires a licence from Youthinmind.
How to score the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire SDQ Teacher
Conducting the assessment
The teacher rates 25 items on a three point scale, with five items reverse scored. Scales can be pro rated if at least three of the five items are completed.
Interpretation
Each scale scores 0 to 10 and Total Difficulties scores 0 to 40.
Four band interpretation for the teacher version (close to average, slightly raised, high, very high):
Total Difficulties: 0 to 11, 12 to 15, 16 to 18, 19 to 40
Emotional symptoms: 0 to 3, 4, 5, 6 to 10
Conduct problems: 0 to 2, 3, 4, 5 to 10
Hyperactivity: 0 to 5, 6 to 7, 8, 9 to 10
Peer problems: 0 to 2, 3 to 4, 5, 6 to 10
Prosocial (close to average, slightly lowered, low, very low): 6 to 10, 5, 4, 0 to 3
Clinical Considerations
Use the teacher version alongside at least one other informant. A single view of a child is rarely enough to act on.
Where teacher and parent scores diverge, look at context rather than assuming one is wrong.
Apply the teacher specific bands. The Total Difficulties thresholds are lower than the parent version.
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire SDQ Teacher use cases
Teacher report of emotional and behavioural difficulties
Multi informant assessment alongside parent and self report versions
School based screening and referral decisions
Population and educational research
Category
Children & Young People
Research Summary
Goodman, R. (1997). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38(5), 581 to 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 to 1345.
Goodman, R., Lamping, D. L., & Ploubidis, G. B. (2010). When to use broader internalising and externalising subscales instead of the hypothesised five subscales on the SDQ. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38(8), 1179 to 1191.
Other Assessment Guides
Young Person's CORE YP-CORE
A guide to the YP-CORE, the 10 item measure of psychological distress in young people aged 11 to 16. Covers scoring, the gender and age specific clinical cut offs and the reliable change index.
Me and My Feelings Questionnaire
A guide to the Me and My Feelings questionnaire, the 16 item school based screen for emotional and behavioural difficulties in children. Covers the two subscales, cut offs and its limits as a screener.
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire SDQ Parent
A guide to the parent completed Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Covers the five scales, the four band scoring thresholds, the impact supplement and how to use it with teacher and self report versions.
Note on Assessment licensing
Some assessments are copyright protected and require a licence or the copyright holder's permission for clinical, commercial or digital use. Where that applies, obtaining and maintaining that permission is the responsibility of the practice or organisation using the assessment. Tacklit provides the digital administration, scoring and reporting. We do not grant, transfer or supply rights to the underlying instrument.
