Pediatrics ACES and related life event screener (PEARLS): translation, transcultural adaptation, and validation to Brazilian Portuguese.

Abstract

Objective: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have been associated with negative health outcomes. Screening for ACEs is crucial for improving health results, however, there is a shortage of standardized tools designed for children in Brazilian Portuguese. This study aimed to translate, culturally adapt, and validate the Pediatrics ACES and Related Life Event Screener (PEARLS) for use in Brazil.

Method: The study followed a methodological design for cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric evaluation. The PEARLS was translated and culturally adapted following a methodology that includes translation, synthesis, expert committee evaluation, target audience evaluation, and back-translation. After adaptation, a pilot cross-sectional study was conducted at a Multidisciplinary Health Care Clinical Center and a General Hospital-Reference Center for Child and Adolescent Care to assess the instrument's internal consistency, convergent validity, content validity and test-retest reliability.

Results: The PEARLS-Br versions for Children, Teens, and Teen Self-Report were developed and subjected to pilot testing with 202 subjects. Participants demonstrated excellent comprehension, with Verbal Rating Scale median scores of 4 (IQR 4-5). Internal consistency was high, with Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranging from 0.78 to 0.81. Content validity, assessed by Kappa, indicated slight to almost perfect agreement across constructs. Test-retest reliability, assessed by Spearman's correlation coefficient, ranged from 0.89 to 0.94.

Conclusions: PEARLS-BR (Child, teen, and teen self-report versions) were successfully translated, culturally adapted, and validated for assessing ACEs in Brazilian children and adolescents. This tool fills a crucial gap in ACE assessment in the Brazilian context, aligning with global recommendations for screening ACEs to improve overall health outcomes.