The Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ) (Angold et al., 1987) is a 34-item scale designed to measure childhood and adolescent depression, which encompasses affective, cognitive, vegetative, and suicidality. Different versions of the scale have been created which include a subset of the original 34 items.
Angold, A., Costello, E.J., Pickles, A., & Winder, F. (1987). The development of a questionnaire for use in epidemiological studies of depression in children and adolescents. London: Medical Research Council Child Psychiatry Unit (unpublished). https://www.eif.org.uk/files/resources/measure-report-child-mfq.pdf
| Question number | Question | Original 34-item version | 18-item version | 17-item version | SMFQ1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he felt miserable or unhappy. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 2 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he didn’t enjoy anything at all. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 3 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he was less hungry than usual. | ✓ | |||
| 4 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he ate more than usual. | ✓ | |||
| 5 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he felt so tired s/he just sat around and did nothing. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 6 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he was moving and walking more slowly than usual. | ✓ | |||
| 7 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he was very restless. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 8 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he felt s/he was no good anymore. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 9 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he blamed him/herself for things that weren’t his/her fault. | ✓ | |||
| 10 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. It was hard for him/her to make up his/her mind. | ✓ | |||
| 11 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he felt grumpy and cross with his/her parents. | ✓ | |||
| 12 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he felt like talking less than usual. | ✓ | |||
| 13 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he was talking more slowly than usual. | ✓ | |||
| 14 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he cried a lot. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 15 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he thought there was nothing good for him/her in the future. | ✓ | |||
| 16 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he thought that life wasn’t worth living. | ✓ | |||
| 17 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he thought about death or dying. | ✓ | |||
| 18 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he thought his/her family would be better off without him/her. | ✓ | |||
| 19 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he thought about killing him/herself. | ✓ | |||
| 20 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he didn’t want to see his/her friends. | ✓ | |||
| 21 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he found it hard to think properly or concentrate. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 22 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he thought bad things would happen to him/her. | ✓ | |||
| 23 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he hated him/herself. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 24 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he felt s/he was a bad person. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 25 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he thought S/he looked ugly. | ✓ | |||
| 26 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he worried about aches and pains. | ✓ | |||
| 27 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he felt lonely. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 28 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he thought nobody really loved him/her. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 29 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he didn’t have any fun in school. | ✓ | |||
| 30 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he thought s/he could never be as good as other kids. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 31 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he felt s/he did everything wrong. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 32 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he didn’t sleep as well as I usually sleep. | ✓ | |||
| 33 | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he slept a lot more than usual. | ✓ | |||
| 34* | For each question, please check (✓) how s/he has been feeling or acting in the past two weeks. S/he wasn’t as happy as usual, even when s/he was praised or rewarded. | ✓* | |||
| Items which are not included in the original version | |||||
| 35 | I have been having fun | ✓ | |||
| 36 | I felt happy | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| 37 | I enjoyed doing lots of things | ✓ | |||
| 38 | I have had a good time | ✓ | |||
| 39 | I laughed a lot | ✓ | |||
| 40 | I felt valued | ✓ | |||
| 41 | I looked forward to the day ahead | ✓ | |||
| 42 | I felt really positive about the future | ✓ | |||
*Note: This item is only present in the Parent Report on Child Long Version of the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire, not the Child Self-Report Long Version Questionnaire. Although both of these are original versions of this scale, the latter is not displayed within this page.
1Angold, 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. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 5(4), 237–249.