THE HIGH LANDS DEPENDENCY QUESTIONNAIRE (H.D.Q.): AN ADMINISTERED VERSION FOR USE WITH THE MOTHERS OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.

A questionnaire concerned with dependency in the mother-child relationship, and intended for use in child psychiatry, was described. It was administered to mothers of 116 randomly selected junior and secondary school children in the general population, stratified into age, sex, social class and school groupings, in order to investigate its reliability and construct validity as a basis for clinical use. Principal component factor analyses were carried out separately on junior and secondary school children. At least two meaningful dimensions were revealed; a Factor concerned with attachment to mother and a factor more specific to the notion of dependency involving reliance on mother in practical matters. Sex differences of statistical significance were found between factor scores; and separate principal component analyses were referred to for boys and girls in the secondary school group. The calculation of factor scores was made easier by the provision of approximate raw score factor weights. Some evidence for the validity of the questionnaire was provided when a group of school phobic cases was investigated.