Psychiatric nursing.

21 Elif Ardıç, Validation and sensitivity PPSC / dx.doi.org/10.14744/phd.2019.56933 sive disorders are all common conditions among children in Turkey, especially among children aged 6–15 years. Durukan et al.[11] (2011) found that 74.7% of all cases were diagnosed as psychiatric cases among 538 children–adolescents, and that the most frequent diagnoses were attention deficit and disruptive behavior disorders at 26.5%, generalized anxiety disorder at 7%, mental retardation at 5.7%, depression at 5.2%, and enuresis at 5%. The source of mental problems in adults can often be explained by childhood psychosocial problems.[12,13] Kim-Cohen et al.[14] (2003) reported that 25–60% of all adult mental problems have a history of disruptive behavior problems in childhood. Early diagnosis is thought to be effective in reducing these problems. However, identifying such problems in children is highly difficult. Sheldrick et al.[15] (2011) point out that primary care physicians see children outside of their natural environment and for a limited period of time; they only use their clinical impressions and they do not carry out survey studies. As a result, developmental–behavioral problems in children may be difficult to diagnose. Globally, there are only a few surveys that diagnose behavioral problems, which are also free and that require no professional expertise for scoring One of these is the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC), which is used to facilitate the diagnosis of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral problems. The PSC is used in the United States and in other countries as a reliable tool to identify the psychosocial and behavioral problems in different pediatric populations.[5,16–19] The Turkish validity and reliability study on the PSC, as developed by Jellinek et al.[16] (1999), was performed by Erdoğan and Öztürk[20] (2011). In 2007, Leiner et al.[5] added a feature that would be more noticeable by parents, through the creation of the PPSC question form—which they developed by adding pictures for each question—thereby making the questions more visually appealing for children and more attention-grabbing and easier to use for families. When using the PPSC, Joshi et al.[21] (2017) found that the prevalence of emotional and behavioral problems among 258 HIV-infected children was 11.2%. Leiner et al.[22] (2015) found that 12% of American children had emotional and behavioral problems in a comparative study of communities living near the Mexican–American border. Comparatively, among Mexican children, this rate was found to be 31%. The study conducted by Erdoğan and Öztürk[20] (2011) showed that the prevalence of childhood psychiatric problems was about 14%. In this context, the main purpose of the current study was to adapt the PPSC for use in Turkish society, which will facilitate the early diagnosis of psychosocial problems in children from Turkish families, especially those of low socioeconomic status. The most important reason for choosing the PPSC in this study was that this surveying tool contains pictures that facilitate the easy collection of information from large groups in a short time. It was reported that the multidimensional characteristics of surveys with pictures—such as color, shape and size—have several advantages in transmitting the main message, and also that some people are better at perceiving pictures in comparison to using words.[5] The PPSC that uses pictorial descriptions is generally completed by families in a period that is less than ten minutes and makes it possible to assess the child’s functions in several psychosocial fields, such as the child’s feelings, behaviors, family, and friends. In their 2007 study, Leiner et al.[5] showed that this diagnostic tool does not provide a specific diagnosis, but rather serves as an indicator for diagnosing potential psychosocial problems. Although measurement tools to diagnose children and adolescents exist Turkey, there is little to no measurement tool to identify children who are at a high risk of experiencing emotional and behavioral problems in early childhood period. Apart from the study conducted by Erdoğan and Öztürk[20] (2011), another, iterative purpose has not been found for this screening tool. Based on the needs of our country in this field, PPSC which has previously been adapted to Turkish and validated by this study, is thought to make a significant contribution to the literature. This study was conducted with the aim of answering the following question. 1. Is PPSC a valid and reliable measurement tool that may be used for the early diagnosis of psychosocial and behavioral problems of children in Turkish society? Materials and Method