Swedish SDQ Norms for Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in Preschoolers

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Pediatric Mental Health

Background:

• The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a key tool for child mental health assessment.
• Existing Swedish SDQ norms lack percentile cutoffs for composite internalizing and externalizing scales in preschoolers.
• Accurate normative data is crucial for reliable screening and research in early childhood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish population-based percentile cutoffs for the SDQ's internalizing and externalizing scales in Swedish preschool children.
• To extend existing Swedish SDQ norms to include composite scale data for ages 3-5 years.
• To provide data for improved clinical screening and research on preschooler mental health.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a large, population-based sample of 3-5-year-old children from Uppsala County.
• Collected ratings from both parents and preschool teachers.
• Calculated percentile cutoffs (80th and 90th) for internalizing and externalizing scores by age, gender, and rater.

Main Results:

• New percentile cutoffs for composite SDQ scales were generated for Swedish preschoolers.
• Teacher ratings yielded consistently lower cutoff values than parent ratings.
• Girls generally exhibited lower cutoff values than boys across most age groups and scales.
• A slight trend of decreasing cutoff scores with increasing age was observed.

Conclusions:

• These findings provide crucial normative data for the SDQ's composite scales in Swedish preschoolers.
• The new cutoffs facilitate more comprehensive clinical screening and research applications of the SDQ in early childhood.
• This study enhances the utility of the SDQ for assessing young children's mental health in Sweden.