The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A Useful Screening Tool to Identify Mental Health Strengths and Needs in Looked After Children and Inform Care Plans at Looked After Children Reviews?

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart Whyte ◽  
Anne Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Screening Tool ◽  
Strengths And Difficulties Questionnaire ◽  
Care Plans ◽  
Looked After Children ◽  
Strengths And Difficulties

scholarly journals Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire scores and mental health in looked after children

2012 ◽  
Vol 200 (5) ◽  
pp. 426-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Goodman ◽  
Robert Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Child Mental Health ◽  
Strengths And Difficulties Questionnaire ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Looked After Children ◽  
Dimensional Measure ◽  
Strengths And Difficulties ◽  
Nationally Representative

SummaryBritish local authorities are required to monitor the mental health of looked after children using mean Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) scores from parents or carers. This assumes that differences in mean SDQ scores reflect genuine differences in child mental health in this group, something we examined using nationally representative surveys (n = 1391, age 5–16). We found that the SDQ was a genuinely dimensional measure of mental health in these children and provided accurate estimates of disorder prevalence.

scholarly journals Use of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to identify treatment needs in looked-after children referred to CAMHS

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Wright ◽  
David Wellsted ◽  
Jacqui Gratton ◽  
Sarah Jane Besser ◽  
Nick Midgley
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Clinical Judgment ◽  
Mental Health Treatment ◽  
Strengths And Difficulties Questionnaire ◽  
High Risk Population ◽  
Treatment Needs ◽  
Looked After Children ◽  
Mental Health Difficulties ◽  
Strengths And Difficulties ◽  
Cutoff Scores

Background: In England and Wales, the single-informant Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is used to assess and monitor looked-after children’s (LAC) mental health; and some targeted Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) include a minimum SDQ score in their acceptance criteria. However, its ability to identify LAC who need mental health treatment is insufficiently understood. Methods: One hundred and forty four LAC referrals to a Targeted CAMHS Team were screened as part of a larger study. To establish how well the SDQ identified children who required treatment, Total Difficulties Scores from single-informant SDQs submitted at referral were compared to treatment recommendations following routine CAMHS assessment in a real-world setting. To explain the results, clinicians ( n = 9) from the team were interviewed and key themes identified using thematic analysis. Results: AUROC analysis found that the single-informant SDQ discriminated between children who were assessed as needing a mental health intervention and those who did not with low accuracy when SDQs were completed by carers or young people themselves, and moderate accuracy for teacher-completed SDQs. Optimal cutoff scores are calculated and are lower than advised in scoring guidance. Key themes from clinician interviews identified possible gaps and limitations: Developmental trauma and attachment difficulties, A different kind of patient?, Seeing the “bad” but neglecting the sad, and The importance of clinical judgment. Conclusions: Contrary to current UK Government policy, this study suggests that the single-report SDQ should not be relied upon as a sole means of identifying mental health difficulties in this vulnerable, high-risk population.

Analysing Dynamic Change in Children’s Socio-Emotional Development using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in a large UK Longitudinal Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia Gabriela Speyer ◽  
Anastasia Ushakova ◽  
Hildigunnur Anna Hall ◽  
Michelle Luciano ◽  
Bonnie Auyeung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Conduct Problems ◽  
Dynamic Change ◽  
Emotional Problems ◽  
Strengths And Difficulties Questionnaire ◽  
Mental Health Issue ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Peer Problems ◽  
Mental Health Difficulties ◽  
Strengths And Difficulties

Background: Most mental health difficulties have their onset during childhood and adolescence. Many children who suffer from one mental health issue also suffer from at least one comorbid disorder. Autoregressive latent trajectory models with structured residuals (ALT-SR) and multilevel graphical vector autoregression (GVAR) are recent complementary approaches that can help provide new insights into the reciprocal relationships between multiple mental health domains and advance the understanding of the development of comorbidities.Methods: This study uses ALT-SR and multilevel GVAR models to analyse the temporal, contemporaneous and between-person relationships between emotional problems, peer problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention and prosociality as measured by the parent-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in 17,478 children taking part in the UK Millennium Cohort Study at ages 3, 5, 7, 11, 14 and 17 years. Results: Results from both the ALT-SR model and the multilevel GVAR model highlight that children’s strengths and difficulties in different domains of psychosocial functioning dynamically influence each other over- and within-time. The ALT-SR model highlighted that hyperactivity/inattention plays a central role in affecting other domains over developmental time while the GVAR model highlighted comparably strong bidirectional relationships between conduct problems and prosociality as well as between emotional problems and peer problems. Both models suggest that most domains are also related to each other over shorter timescales.Conclusion: This study highlights that mental health difficulties influence one another dynamically over time. As illustrated in the domains of the SDQ, these dynamic changes can be modelled using the complementary techniques of ALT-SR or GVAR models, each offering different insights into the nature of comorbidity.

scholarly journals Is Using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in a Community Sample the Optimal Way to Assess Mental Health Functioning?

PLoS ONE ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. e0144039 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharmila Vaz ◽  
Reinie Cordier ◽  
Mark Boyes ◽  
Richard Parsons ◽  
Annette Joosten ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Strengths And Difficulties Questionnaire ◽  
Mental Health Functioning ◽  
Health Functioning ◽  
Strengths And Difficulties

scholarly journals The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Predicts Concurrent Mental Health Difficulties in a Transdiagnostic Sample of Struggling Learners

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Bryant ◽  
Jacalyn Guy ◽  
Joni Holmes ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Strengths And Difficulties Questionnaire ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Developmental Problems ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Mental Health Difficulties ◽  
Strengths And Difficulties

Children and adolescents with developmental problems are at increased risk of experiencing mental health problems. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is widely used as a screener for detecting mental health difficulties in these populations, but its use thus far has been restricted to groups of children with diagnosed disorders (e.g., ADHD). Transdiagnostic approaches, which focus on symptoms and soften or remove the boundaries between traditional categorical disorders, are increasingly adopted in research and practice. The aim of this study was to assess the potential of the SDQ to detect concurrent mental health problems in a transdiagnostic sample of children. The sample were referred by health and educational professionals for difficulties related to learning (N = 389). Some had one diagnosis, others had multiple, but many had no diagnoses. Parent-rated SDQ scores were significantly positively correlated with parent ratings of mental health difficulties on the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS). Ratings on the SDQ Emotion subscale significantly predicted the likelihood of having concurrent clinical anxiety and depression scores. Ratings on the Hyperactivity subscale predicted concurrent anxiety levels. These findings suggest the SDQ could be a valuable screening tool for identifying existing mental health difficulties in children recognized as struggling, as it can be in typically developing children and those with specific diagnoses.

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