Supplementary scales for the school-age forms of the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment rated by adolescents, parents, and teachers: Psychometric properties in German samples.

Abstract

Background: Based on Achenbach's school-age questionnaires, research groups have investigated supplementary scales for stress problems, obsessive-compulsive problems, sluggish cognitive tempo, positive qualities, dysregulation, autism spectrum disorders, and mania in 6-18-year-olds partly only in some of the three perspectives the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA) provides.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate these dimensions for the German-language forms and, if possible, to extend their use to further rating perspectives.

Methods: The internal consistencies of the supplementary scales were examined for three types of informants (parents, adolescents, and teachers) and different samples (community sample, clinical sample, and disorder-specific subsamples). Age-and gender-specific effects are displayed as well as cross-informant correlations. Additionally, different aspects of validity were analyzed: (a) convergent/divergent validity via correlations with traditional ASEBA scales (problem scales as well as the scales oriented to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th edition); (b) discriminative validity via differences between clinical vs. community-based sample as well as disorder-specific subgroup vs. clinical sample.

Results: Most of the supplementary scales showed at least acceptable internal consistency. For some scales, we found significant but rather small and informant-dependent gender and age differences. Convergent validity of the supplementary scales differed across informants. Mean differences between the supplementary scales in the clinical and the community sample as well as the diagnosis-specific subsamples were mostly significant, with predominantly large effect sizes.

Conclusions: Overall, the validity and reliability of the supplementary scales differed depending on informants and subgroups. While further research is necessary before the supplementary scales are implemented in clinical practice, initial recommendations for their use are derived.

Trial registration: This project was carried out as a reanalysis of the datasets upon which the German norms for the school-age versions are based (1). Therefore, the trial was not registered.