Cross-Cultural Validation of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires for Children in the United States and China

• In Event: Cross-Cultural Educational Practices

Abstract

The current study was conducted to investigate the factor structure and measurement invariance of teacher-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ) for elementary school children in the United States and China. Seventy-four public elementary school teachers from China and seventy-one public elementary teachers from the U.S. rated their students’ social, emotional, and behavioral problems (SEB) with SDQ using the Online Google Form. A three-factor structure was identified with decent reliability and validity in both cultures. Full configural, metric, scalar, and residual variance invariance of SDQ was supported. This study contributed to the research on the psychometric properties of the teacher-reported SDQ by providing additional evidence of reliability and validity cross-actually. This is of significance of international studies using SDQ.

Authors

• Ruiqin Gao, University of South Carolina

• Suzy Hardie, University of South Carolina