An evaluation of the psychometric properties of the strengths and difficulties scale in Turkey: implications for other non-WEIRD countries

Abstract

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a very widely used scale in which parents, teachers or the child rate various aspects of the child's well-being. It is widely used in the Western world and is translated into 80+ languages. It is also used in countries that do not classify as WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic). However, unlike WEIRD countries, some studies indicate that the psychometric properties of the SDQ when used in non-WEIRD countries are questionable. Therefore, we gave the SDQ to the mothers and teachers of 310 3- to 5-year-olds in urban centres of Turkey and examined its psychometric properties. Turkey is not a WEIRD country because it is not Western, although the participants in our study were well educated, living in an industrialized area, rich relative to others in Turkey (although poor relative to Westerners) and democratic. As such, it is not drastically different from WEIRD countries and our question was whether even relatively small deviations from standard WEIRD criteria could result in questionable psychometric properties for the SDQ.