PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

This study compared the German self and proxy report versions of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in order to analyze discrepancies between the informants. We compared the original scales with modified scales, which contained more closely matched item wordings. In a sample of 217 mother-child-dyads the original item versions were applied, while 276 dyads were asked to provide reports based on the modified versions. For the self as well as for the proxy reports, the results showed partial measurement invariance between the original and the modified versions of the questionnaire. Moreover, the informant discrepancies between the self and proxy reports were lower for the modified version regarding the means as well as the correlations between self and proxy reports. The results underline the significance of item wordings for questionnaire results in general and, in particular, for the emergence of informant discrepancies.