Broader child and adolescent assessment
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)
Score interpretation for Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)
Reference information · Official-form reference
- Last content update
- 2026-10-26
- Clinical review
- Not independently reviewed
- Source jurisdiction
- See individual sources
- Coverage
- Official-form reference
| Field | Instrument context |
|---|---|
| Version | SDQ; select respondent, age band, form and scoring version |
| Population | Children/adolescents; verify age range for selected form |
| Respondent | Child/parent/teacher by form |
| Purpose | Score interpretation for Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) |
Administration
Choose the exact parent, teacher or self-report form and its age band. Use the original team’s scoring service or an authorized scoring implementation.
Scoring method
The subscales, total difficulties and impact findings are distinct. Reverse keys, omitted-response rules and reference bands depend on the selected form; a single generic total is insufficient for a full report.
Interpretation & limitations
- Compare informant perspectives without adding different respondents’ scores together.
- Use the appropriate norms and examine which difficulties affect daily life.
- The original team recommends computer scoring and identifies licensing requirements for scoring syntax and disorder-prediction algorithms. No multi-informant diagnostic algorithm is reproduced here.