Identification of social-emotional problems in young children using a parent-completed screening measure

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Abstract

The early identification of social and emotional problems in infants, toddlers, and young children is critical for improving developmental outcomes. The Ages and Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional, a newly-developed screening tool, is described in this article. Questionnaires span the 3- to 63-month period with 8 separate assessment intervals. Research findings, including data on 3014 questionnaires, are reported. Internal consistency was generally high, with an overall alpha of 0.82. Test-retest reliability between parents’ classifications was 0.94. Sensitivity ranged from 0.75 to 0.89 with 0.82 overall sensitivity; specificity ranged from 0.82 to 0.96 with 0.92 overall specificity. Parents reported easy understanding and high satisfaction with the questionnaires.

Section snippets

Identification of social-emotional problems in young children using a parent-completed screening measure

The timely and accurate identification of young children with social or emotional problems is critical to their well being; however, few strategies exist for the early and timely identification of young children who have or may develop behavioral or mental health difficulties. Accurate, usable, and affordable screening procedures to assist in the detection of social or emotional problems in young children have been particularly slow to emerge; consequently, the assessment of social and

Ages and stages questionnaires: social-emotional

The Ages and Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional (ASQ:SE) was developed as a complement to the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ), a general developmental screening tool for children from 4 months to 5 years of age (Bricker & Squires, 1999). The ASQ is a set of 19 parent-completed questionnaires designed to identify infants and young children who may have potential developmental problems in the areas of communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving, and personal-social areas

Participants

Children between the ages of 3 and 63 months were recruited for this study using a variety of methods including birth announcements in Pacific Northwest newspapers; recruitment letters to day care providers in Oregon and California; personal contacts with personnel in agencies serving high risk families in Michigan, Florida, Washington, North Carolina, Ohio, Hawaii, Oregon, and California; and information booths set up at children’s fairs and shopping malls in Oregon and Washington. An attempt

Internal consistency

Internal consistency of the ASQ:SE was examined using coefficient alpha, or Cronbach’s alpha (Cronbach, 1951). Alpha is a function of both the number of items and their magnitude of intercorrelation. Coefficient alpha was calculated from the variances of individual test items and the variance of the total test scores for the ASQ:SE at each test interval. Cronbach’s coefficient alpha’s for the 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 48, and 60 month ASQ:SE are shown in Table 5 and range from 0.67 to 0.91, with

Discussion

Reliability, validity, and utility of the ASQ:SE have been investigated. In terms of reliability, internal consistency of the tool was generally high, with coefficient alpha ranging from 0.67 to 0.91, with an overall alpha of 0.82. Alpha estimates, based on scores obtained from the sample, were lower across the youngest age levels and generally increased across the older age levels. This increase may be a function of the larger number of items on the ASQ:SE at the older age intervals (e.g.,

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