A dual perspective on the SDQ (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire): Parental and adolescent perceptions in a cross- sectional study in South Tyrol, Northern Italy
This cross-sectional study in South Tyrol analyzes dual-informant SDQ data from over 5,700 parents and 1,500 adolescents, revealing moderate parent-adolescent agreement, higher self-reported difficulties among older teens (particularly girls aged 15–19), and the critical need for updated post-pandemic Italian norms to guide targeted mental health interventions.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
The Two-Headed Monster of Growing Up
Imagine trying to understand a complex movie by watching it through two different pairs of glasses. One pair belongs to a parent, who sees the story from the living room couch, noticing when the lights go out or when the music gets too loud. The other pair belongs to the teenager, who is actually in the movie, feeling the plot twists, the awkward silences, and the hidden fears that never make it to the living room. In the world of science, this is called "dual-informant" research. Scientists use tools like the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), which is basically a checklist of feelings and behaviors, to ask both parents and kids, "How are things really going?"
Why does this matter? Because growing up is messy. Sometimes what looks like a "problem" to a parent is just a normal part of growing up to a kid, and sometimes a kid is suffering in silence while their parents think everything is fine. If we only listen to one side, we might miss the whole story. This is especially true after the big global pause we all experienced recently (the pandemic), when everyone's mental health took a hit. Scientists wanted to know: Did things get better? Did parents and kids start seeing eye-to-eye again? And does it matter if you speak German or Italian?
The South Tyrol Story: Two Languages, One Big Question
This study, conducted in South Tyrol, a bilingual region in Northern Italy where German and Italian speakers live side-by-side, decided to check the mental health pulse of thousands of families. The researchers, led by Verena Barbieri and her team, gathered data from over 5,700 parents and 1,500 teenagers (aged 11 to 19) in 2025. They asked parents to fill out the SDQ about their kids, and then asked the kids themselves to fill out the exact same questionnaire. It was like a massive, real-time "he said, she said" experiment, but with feelings instead of arguments.
The Great Disconnect: Parents vs. Teens
The most striking finding was a gap in perception. When it came to the older teenagers (ages 15 to 19), the kids consistently reported having more trouble than their parents realized. It's as if the parents were looking at a calm ocean surface, while the teenagers were describing a stormy sea underneath. This was especially true for emotional problems and peer issues. The study found that parents tended to underestimate these difficulties, particularly for girls in the 15–19 age group. In fact, girls aged 15–19 emerged as the most vulnerable group, reporting the highest levels of emotional and peer problems. The researchers suggest that as kids get older, they become more independent, and their struggles often happen in places parents can't see—like school hallways or online chats—making the "dual perspective" (asking both) absolutely essential.
The Gender Shift
The study also spotted a fascinating shift in the "problem landscape" as kids grow up. For the younger kids (ages 6–10), boys tended to show more "external" trouble, like hyperactivity or conduct issues (think running around or breaking rules). But as they hit the 15–19 age range, the spotlight shifted. Girls started reporting higher levels of "internal" trouble, like emotional distress and problems with friends. The researchers noted that while boys still had higher scores for hyperactivity, the biggest jump in difficulty scores moved from boys to girls in the older age groups.
The "Language" Mystery
Since South Tyrol is bilingual, the team wondered if speaking German or Italian changed how people answered the questions. The answer was surprisingly simple: not really. For parents, the language didn't seem to matter much; a German-speaking parent and an Italian-speaking parent saw their children's struggles in very similar ways. However, for the teenagers themselves, there were tiny differences. For example, Italian-speaking boys reported slightly different emotional scores than German-speaking boys, and Italian girls reported slightly different peer problem scores. But overall, the researchers concluded that age and gender were much bigger factors than language. The questionnaire seemed to work just fine in both languages.
The "Missing" Piece
One tricky part of the study was that not every teenager who got the survey actually filled it out. The researchers noticed that the kids who didn't fill out the self-report were often the ones whose parents had already reported higher levels of trouble (like conduct problems or hyperactivity). This suggests that the kids who were struggling the most might have been the least likely to want to talk about it. This means the study's results might actually be a "best-case scenario" or a conservative estimate; the real picture of teen struggles could be even a bit darker than what was measured.
What's Next?
The study didn't find a sudden explosion of mental health issues compared to pre-pandemic times in Italy; the scores were mostly similar to what was seen in 2017. However, the clear message is that we cannot rely solely on parents to tell us how their teenagers are doing. The "two-headed monster" of parent and teen perspectives is necessary because they see different parts of the same reality. The researchers suggest that we need to pay extra attention to girls aged 15–19 and that we need new, up-to-date Italian norms for these questionnaires to help doctors and schools spot trouble early.
In short, the paper tells us that growing up is a solo journey that parents can only partially witness. To truly understand the mental health of the next generation, we need to listen to both the person on the couch and the person in the movie.
Drowning in papers in your field?
Get daily digests of the most novel papers matching your research keywords — with technical summaries, in your language.