Psychometric behaviour of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) in the Spanish national health survey 2006

The diagnostic behaviour of the SDQ in the Spanish population is within the working limits described in other countries. According to the results obtained in this study, the diagnostic efficiency of the questionnaire is adequate to identify probable cases of psychiatric disorders in low prevalence populations. Regarding the factorial structure we found that both the five and the three factor models fit the data with acceptable goodness of fit indexes, the latter including an externalization and internalization dimension and perhaps a meaningful positive social dimension.Accordingly, we recommend studying whether these differences depend on sociocultural factors or are, in fact, due to methodological questions.