Measurement quality of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for assessing psychosocial behaviour among Dutch adolescents

Approximately 15 to 25 percent of all adolescents experience psychosocial problems. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is widely used to screen for such problems. The studies in this dissertation provide insight into how useful the self-reported and parent-reported SDQ versions are among Dutch 12- to 17-year-olds in child and adolescent (mental) healthcare (Dutch: Jeugdgezondheidszorg, Jeugd Geestelijke Gezondheidszorg). The scales, especially of the parent-reported SDQ version, are useful for distinguishing between adolescents with psychosocial problems and those without such problems. Additionally, both SDQ versions, especially the parent-reported version, are useful for providing a preliminary indication of the type of psychosocial problems at hand (Anxiety/Mood disorder, Conduct/Oppositional Defiant Disorder, ADHD). The scales of the parent-reported version were also indicative of Autism Spectrum Disorders; the scales of the self-reported version were not. The use of the SDQ can be optimized by combining all scales of both SDQ versions into an SDQ profile. We found such profiles to be more useful for screening purposes than the so-called SDQ total difficulties scale was. In summary: The findings support the use of the SDQ among Dutch adolescents. Up until now, healthcare professional did not know if, and if so which, SDQ scales could be used for the benefit of adolescents. To inform them about the possibilities, and to help them interpret SDQ scale scores, a summary of the findings from this dissertation and new Dutch SDQ norms are presented in a manual that has been distributed among users of the SDQ (https://assets.ncj.nl/docs/a299fba5-d5e3-4c96-8d90-0605c185b0d9.pdf)

The risk at drop-out during the first two years of vocational education

Ongeveer negentig procent van de leerlin gen die een vmbo-opleiding hebben afgerond, vervolgt hun onderwijsloopbaan in het mbo. Daar verlaten ieder jaar duizenden jongeren het onderwijs zonder startkwalificatie. Om het afbreken van opleidingen te verklaren zijn ge- durende de afgelopen vijftig jaar verschillende theoretische modellen voorgesteld (bijv., Tinto, 1975; Finn, 1989; Battin-Pearson et al., 2000). In de huidige studie is van 721 mbo-studenten onderzocht welke factoren uit de theoretische modellen, en enkele aanvullingen daarop, van voorspellende waarde zijn voor het afbreken van een opleiding gedurende de eerste twee leerjaren van het mbo. Daartoe is gebruik ge- maakt van schooladministratiegegevens en is verspreid over een periode van twee jaar vier keer een vragenlijst aan studenten voorgelegd. Ruim 42 procent van de studenten (n = 304) brak hun mbo-opleiding af. Uit de resultaten van een survivalanalyse bleek de prevalentie van het af- breken van de mbo-opleiding rond of vlak na de overgang van het eerste naar het tweede leerjaar het grootst. Een verlaagd risico op het afbreken van de eerst gekozen mbo-opleiding lijkt geassocieerd te zijn met een hoger oplei dingsniveau van ouders, het hebben gevolgd van een vmbo-opleiding in de sector Economie (t.o.v. de sector Zorg & Welzijn), een lagere spijbelfrequentie, en het kwalificatieplichtig zijn. Er is onvoldoende bewijs gevonden voor een eventuele rol van andere over tijd variërende factoren, zoals motivatie en de mate waarin de student het idee heeft zelf sturing aan zijn/haar leertraject te kunnen geven. De afwezigheid van bewijs voor de invloed van deze factoren ligt mogelijk in het simultaan toetsen van verschillende variabelen of in de van de oorspronkelijke constructen afwijkende operationalisaties.Approximately ninety percent of students move on to vocational education after completing pre-vocational education. In vocational education, however, thousands of students drop out each year. Over the past five decades several theoretical models to describe drop out were suggested (bijv., Tinto, 1975; Finn, 1984; Battin-Pearson et al., 2000). A number of 721 students were followed during the first two years in Dutch vocational education in order to investigate the effect of factors from these theoretical models at the students’ drop out risk. Forty-two percent of the students (n = 304) discontinued their studies at one point during this time. A survival analysis brought to light that dropout peaks around or shortly after the transition from the first to the second year of vocational education. Higher educational levels in parents, pre-vocational education in an economy track (compared to a health care track), a lower truancy frequency, and compulsory school attendance seems to be associated with reduced risk at dropping out. Apart from being obligated by law to go to school, not enough evidence was found for the potential role of other time varyingfactors (e.g., motivation, expectations and the degree to which student have control over their own learning trajectory). This finding might be caused by the use of operationalizations that deviate from the original ones

Psychometric Properties of the Dutch Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in Adolescent Community and Clinical Populations

This study assessed the factor structures of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) adolescent and parent versions and their measurement invariance across settings in clinical (n= 4,053) and community (n= 962) samples of Dutch adolescents aged 12 to 17 years. Per SDQ version, confirmatory factor analyses were performed to assess its factor structure in clinical and community settings and to test for measurement invariance across these settings. The results suggest measurement invariance of the presumed five-factor structure for the parent version and a six-factor structure for the adolescent version. Furthermore, evaluation of the SDQ scale sum scores as used in practice, indicated that working with sum scores yields a fairly reasonable approximation of working with the favorable but less easily computed factor scores. These findings suggest that adolescent- and parent-reported SDQ scores can be interpreted using community-based norm scores, regardless of whether the adolescent has been referred for mental health problems