Lukumar Pathumanabhan, Wijewardana Kumudu, Hermansson Johanna, Lindmark Gunilla
Department of Community Medicine, Facutly of Medicine, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka.
Ceylon Med J. 2008 Jun;53(2):48-52. doi: 10.4038/cmj.v53i2.232.
Child and adolescent mental health services are scarce in Sri Lanka. Moreover there are no validated instruments to measure the mental health problems of Tamil speaking adolescents in Sri Lanka. Hence, strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) self-report was translated into Tamil and validated in the District of Jaffna, Sri Lanka. SDQ self-report was translated from English to Tamil using standard translation and back translation method. The Tamil version of the SDQ self-report was validated against a gold standard (ie. diagnosis made by a consultant psychiatrist). Both clinic and community samples were included in the validation study. Thirty-five adolescents (11-16 years) attending a psychiatric clinic and 91 adolescents from the community were included. The consultant psychiatrist made the diagnosis independent of the SDQ responses. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was used to measure the validity of SDQ. Reliability was measured using internal consistency.
The ROC curve indicated high validity for the identification of adolescents with mental health problems: area under the curve 0.87 (95% - CI = 0.79-0.93). International cut-off point of 15 gave a sensitivity of 69.4% and specificity of 92.2%. Cronbach's alpha values (0.67-0.78) were good in all subscales and total difficulties scale.
The SDQ self-report Tamil version can be used effectively for screening of adolescents to identify mental health problems as well as for research purposes.
在斯里兰卡，儿童和青少年心理健康服务匮乏。此外，尚无经过验证的工具可用于测量斯里兰卡讲泰米尔语青少年的心理健康问题。因此，将长处与困难问卷（SDQ）自评量表翻译成泰米尔语，并在斯里兰卡贾夫纳地区进行了验证。SDQ自评量表采用标准翻译和回译方法从英语翻译成泰米尔语。SDQ自评量表的泰米尔语版本以金标准（即由精神科顾问做出的诊断）进行验证。验证研究纳入了临床样本和社区样本。其中包括35名（11 - 16岁）前往精神科诊所就诊的青少年以及91名来自社区的青少年。精神科顾问独立于SDQ回答做出诊断。采用受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线来衡量SDQ的有效性。使用内部一致性来测量信度。
ROC曲线表明，该量表在识别有心理健康问题的青少年方面具有较高的有效性：曲线下面积为0.87（95% - CI = 0.79 - 0.93）。国际截断值15的敏感性为69.4%，特异性为92.2%。所有子量表及总困难量表的克朗巴哈系数值（0.67 - 0.78）良好。
SDQ自评量表泰米尔语版本可有效用于筛查青少年的心理健康问题以及研究目的。
