SMFQ (child)
ValidatedShort Mood and Feelings Questionnaire – Child Self-Report (SMFQ-C)
6 – 17 yearsSelf~2 min13 questions
This form is about how you might have been feeling or acting recently. For each question, please check how much you have felt or acted this way in the past two weeks. If a sentence was true about you most of the time, check True. If it was only sometimes true, check Sometimes. If a sentence was not true about you, check Not True.
Report details · optional
Shown on the report and stored with the screening record. Use initials or a code, not full names.
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About this screener — evidence, source, alternatives
A 13-item self-report screen for core depressive symptoms in children and adolescents, shortened from the 33-item Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (Duke University). Each statement is rated Not true / Sometimes / True for the past two weeks (0–26). Also useful for tracking severity and treatment response over time.
Evidence · validated
In the original validation (Angold et al., 1995), a child-report score of 8 or more had a sensitivity of 60% and a specificity of 85% for major depression. Validated for use in children aged 6 years and up; widely used in epidemiological and clinical samples.
Free alternative to
- Children's Depression Inventory 2 (CDI-2) · MHS
Paid child self-report depression inventory; the SMFQ is the free, brief alternative.
Source & licence
Angold A, Costello EJ, Messer SC. Development of a short questionnaire for use in epidemiological studies of depression in children and adolescents. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research. 1995;5:237–249. Copyright Adrian Angold & Elizabeth J. Costello, 1987; Developmental Epidemiology Program, Duke University.
Licence: Free for clinical or research use — Duke's Center for Developmental Epidemiology provides all MFQ versions free of charge and asks only that the authors be cited.
Cite Angold & Costello (Duke University) wherever the questionnaire is used or reported. Do not modify the items.
Official source ↗