The reliability and validity of the pupil behaviour questionnaire: a child classroom behaviour assessment tool. Issue 4 (2nd October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Allwood, Matt; Allen, Kate; Price, Anna; Hayes, Rachel; Edwards, Vanessa; Ball, Susan; Ukoumunne, Obioha C; Ford, Tamsin
• Is Part Of: Emotional and behavioural difficulties. Volume 23:Issue 4(2018)
• Page Start: 361
• Page End: 371
• Publication Date: 2018-10-02
• Subjects: Behaviour -- school children -- questionnaire -- validity -- reliability; Adjustment disorders in children -- Periodicals; Special education -- Periodicals; Behavior disorders in children -- Periodicals; 371.9305
• DOI: 10.1080/13632752.2018.1478945
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1363-2752

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper assesses the reliability and validity of the teacher-completed Pupil Behaviour Questionnaire (PBQ), by comparing it to the already extensively validated teacher-completed Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Participants included 2074 primary school children participating in a universal school-based trial and 41 vulnerable children who were taking part in a study exploring the impact of exclusion from school. Exploratory factor analysis results (first factor accounts for 80.8% of the variation in the items) and the high Cronbach's alpha value of 0.85 indicate that the PBQ consists of one substantive factor/dimension. Strong correlations between the total PBQ score and the conduct sub-scale (Spearman's correlation coefficient (rs ) = 0.67) and total difficulties score (rs = 0.59) of the SDQ indicate convergent validity. This study suggests that the PBQ is a reliable measure, and provides some evidence of validity. Further work is needed to test the PBQ in an older, more diverse populations and to measure sensitivity to change.