Overview
The Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ) was developed by Adrian Angold and Elizabeth J. Costello in 1987 (Angold et al., 1995; Costello & Angold, 1988). The MFQ consists of a series of 33 descriptive phrases regarding how the subject has been feeling or acting recently. It is a screening tool for depression in children and young people aged 6 to 19.
Terms of use
The MFQ is free to download as a PDF for administering to clients, or for research purposes. The authors ask that they are cited in any published work.
Administration
The MFQ exists in six versions: child self-report, parent-report and adult self-report, with each questionnaire available in a long and short version (33 or 13 questions). All questionnaires can be found here. The MFQ is free to download.
Respondents are asked whether descriptions in the questionnaire are ‘true’, ‘sometimes true’ or ‘not true’ for them over the past two weeks.
The MFQ was originally designed for use with 8-to 18-year olds but has been validated with children and young people aged between 6 and 19.
Working remotely
If you have access to PDF versions of the questionnaire:
- The free Adobe Acrobat Reader does have commenting tools that allow you to add, circle or highlight text and then save the PDF with these 'comments'
- If you are a practitioner going through the questionnaire verbally online and can share screen, we feel it works well for the child or young person to be able to see you edit the questionnaire as you go through it
- The questionnaire can also be edited this way at the service user’s end, although do experiment with this yourself to check its suitability for those you work with - not everyone will find this equally user-friendly and practice or advice may help.
Scoring and interpretation
The MFQ is scored by summing together the point values of responses for each item. The response choices and their designated point values are as follows:
"not true" = 0 points
"sometimes true" = 1 point
"true" = 2 points
Higher scores on the MFQ suggest more severe depressive symptoms.
- Scores on the short version of the MFQ range from 0 to 26. Scoring a 12 or higher on the short version may indicate the presence of depression in the respondent.
- Scores on the long version range from 0 to 66. Scoring 27 or higher on the long version may indicate the presence of depression in the respondent.
However, there are no prescribed cut-points for any version the MFQ since there is no single cut-point that is best for use in all circumstances. The author provides a list of publications for determining appropriate cut-points in different circumstances, which is recommended reading when setting a cut-point for your use.
Psychometric properties
Peer-reviewed studies have found the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire to be a reliable and valid measure of depression in children in both clinical and non-clinical samples (Burleson Daviss et al., 2006; Sund et al., 2001; Wood et al., 1995).
|
Property |
Definition |
MFQ |
|
Internal consistency |
Whether several items that propose to measure the same general construct produce similar score. |
Thabrew et al. (2018) reported Cronbach’s alphas of .91 and above in a New Zealand sample, indicating excellent internal consistency. |
|
Test-retest reliability |
Degree to which the same respondents have the same score after a period when a trait should not have changed. |
In a Swedish sample, the test-retest reliability of the questionnaire was high after a three-week period (0.84, p < 0.01) and a three-month period (0.80, p < 0.01; Sund et al., 2001). |
|
Convergent validity |
Degree to which two measures of constructs that theoretically should be related, are in fact related. |
The MFQ was significantly correlated with the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (r = .62, p < .001) and the Pediatric Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (r = −.73, p < .001) in the study by Thabrew et al. (2018). |
|
Concurrent validity |
If a measure correlates well with a measure that has previously been validated. |
Thabrew et al. (2018) indicated strong correlations between the MFQ and the Children's Depression Rating Scale—Revised, as well as with the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale 2. |
Thabrew et al. (2018) also showed that the MFQ had good content validity and criterion validity.
Translation
The MFQ child self-report (long version) has been translated into Arabic, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Norwegian, but testing of these versions is more limited.
The short version of the MFQ child self-report is available in Arabic, Filipino, Finnish, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Norwegian.
Useful resources
Please direct questions about the MFQ to Brian Small brian.small@dm.duke.edu
References
Angold, A., Costello, E. J., Messer, S. C., Pickles, A., Winder, F., & Silver, D. (1995). Development of a short questionnaire for use in epidemiological studies of depression in children and adolescents (Vol. 5, pp. 237–249).
Burleson Daviss, W., Birmaher, B., Melhem, N. A., Axelson, D. A., Michaels, S. M., & Brent, D. A. (2006). Criterion validity of the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire for depressive episodes in clinic and non-clinic subjects. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 47(9), 927–934.
Costello, E. J., & Angold, A. (1988). Scales to Assess Child and Adolescent Depression: Checklists, Screens, and Nets. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Sund, A. M., Larsson, B., & Wichstrøm, L. (2001). Depressive symptoms among young Norwegian adolescents as measured by the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ). European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 10(4), 222–229.
Thabrew, H., Stasiak, K., Bavin, L. M., Frampton, C., & Merry, S. (2018). Validation of the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ) and Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ) in New Zealand help-seeking adolescents. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 27(3), 1–9.
Wood, A., Kroll, L., & Moore, A. (1995). Properties of the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire in Adolescent Psychiatric Outpatients: A Research Note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.