Parent and adolescent reports on emotional and peer problems in psychiatric outpatient setting using SDQ.

Introduction: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is one of the most widely used screening instruments in child and adolescent psychiatry. Studies have shown that the parent is a better informant than the adolescent, both for externalising and inter- nalising disorders (Goodman et al, 1997, 2000).
Objectives: Aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of parent and adolescent reported internalising problems in outpa- tient child and adolescent psychiatry setting using SDQ and exam- ine the differences between parent and adolescent reports. Methods: The study group was 101 adolescents (11-17 y.o.) and their parents, in 2 outpatient psychiatric care centres in Latvia. Internalising problems were assessed using SDQ parent and self- report version. When analyzing the score, 3rd and 4th band were defined as “high”.
Results: The mean age of adolescent population was 14,04 years (SD 1,96) and N=54 were female. 60,4% of parents and 52,5% of adolescents reported high level of peer problems, 63,4% of parents and 51,5% of adolescents reported high level of emotional prob- lems. Parent and adolescent report results were concordant in two thirds of cases. Adolescents reported high emotional and peer problems in 9% and 14% of cases respectively, when their parents did not. And on the contrary - 22% of parents reported high level of internalising problems when the adolescent did not. Conclusions: More than half of reports showed high levels of internalising problems. Every fifth parent reported a higher level of internalising problems than their adolescent. This agrees with previous findings that single informant (parent) reports might be more informative than multi-informant reports.