About the project

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a measure used worldwide to screen children’s behavioural and emotional problems. Despite the SDQ being widely used and having a growing research avenue, most studies use cross-sectional evidence and there are several inconsistencies in the factor structure and measurement invariance of the measure. Therefore, more age-specific, context-relevant validation of the SDQ is needed. Across Aotearoa New Zealand, the SDQ is frequently used in both research and services. However, reference population data for cut-off points used to determine “behavioural difficulties” are not based on an Aotearoa NZ population. Adding to this is that the SDQ problem subscales have been found to be biased by ethnicity and to lack cultural equivalence with particular relevance for Māori, Pacific and Asian ethnic groups in Aotearoa NZ. The validity of the SDQ therefore requires further investigation. The aim of this research is to gain a better understanding of the validity of the SDQ as a measure of behavioural difficulties and its applicability and appropriateness within the Aotearoa NZ context. This information will contribute to inform future approaches in both research and practice. Therefore, by using Growing Up in New Zealand data, psychometric properties of the SDQ will be investigated for different sociodemographic subgroups with respect to ethnicity and gender identity across different time points (2Y, 4.5Y, 8Y, 12Y).  This proposal builds and extends on the work of a previous approved project "Psychometric properties and cultural equivalence of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire" (2021-2022) as part of the Stats 780 course.

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Start date: 1/07/2024