SMFQ (parent)
ValidatedShort Mood and Feelings Questionnaire – Parent Report (SMFQ-P)
6 – 17 yearsParent~2 min13 questions
This form is about how your child might have been feeling or acting recently. For each question, please check how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. If a sentence was not true about your child, check NOT TRUE. If a sentence was only sometimes true, check SOMETIMES. If a sentence was true about your child most of the time, check TRUE.
Report details · optional
Shown on the report and stored with the screening record. Use initials or a code, not full names.
Answers, results and report details are recorded by OpenScreener to monitor and improve the service. Privacy
About this screener — evidence, source, alternatives
The parent-report version of the 13-item Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (Duke University). A caregiver rates statements about the child's mood and behaviour over the past two weeks as Not true / Sometimes / True (0–26). Best used alongside the child's own report and for tracking change over time.
Evidence · validated
Parent and child versions were developed together (Angold et al., 1995). The parent version is widely used for symptom tracking, but no validated screening cut-off has been reported, so results are shown as a total only.
Free alternative to
- Children's Depression Inventory 2 (CDI-2) – Parent · MHS
Paid parent-report depression inventory; the SMFQ parent form is the free 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 ↗