Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan 21;60(7):2320-2341.
doi: 10.1002/pits.22856.

The Utility of the Behavior Assessment System for Children-2 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in Predicting Mental Disorders in the Project to Learn About Youth-Mental Health

Melissa L Danielson  1 , Hannah D Kassab  2 , Mary Lee  2 , Julie Sarno Owens  2 , Steven W Evans  2 , Corey Lipton  1   3 , Sana Charania  1   3 , Hayley Elia Young  1   4 , Lorraine F Kubicek  5 , Kate Flory  6 , Steven P Cuffe  7
Affiliations

The Utility of the Behavior Assessment System for Children-2 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in Predicting Mental Disorders in the Project to Learn About Youth-Mental Health

Melissa L Danielson et al. Psychol Sch. .

Abstract

We examined the predictive utility of the Behavior Assessment System for Children-2 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BASC-2-BESS) and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in identifying students with a mental disorder. Data were collected in a two-stage study over 34 months with kindergarten-12th grade (K-12) students (aged 5-19 years) in four U.S. school districts. In Stage 1, teachers completed the BASC-2-BESS and the SDQ. In Stage 2, parents of 1,054 children completed a structured diagnostic interview to determine presence of a mental disorder. Results suggest that teacher versions of the BASC-2-BESS and SDQ have modest utility in identifying children meeting criteria for a mental disorder based on parent report. Area Under the Curve (AUC) statistics representing prediction of any externalizing disorder (.73 for both measures) were higher than the AUCs predicting any internalizing disorder (.58 for both measures). Findings can inform the use of teacher report in mental health screening, specifically the selection of measures when implementing screening procedures.

Keywords: adolescents; children; mental health; psychometrics; screening.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: Dr. Owens has received funding from the Institute of Education Sciences. Dr. Evans has received funding from Institute of Education Sciences, National Institute of Mental Health, and Patient Center Outcomes Research Initiative. Dr. Kubicek has received funding from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. All other authors declare they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Flow chart showing how the study population was derived by site CO: Colorado; FL: Florida; OH: Ohio; SC: South Carolina † Population in participating schools; not all schools in the CO or FL districts participated in the PLAY-MH study ‡ The Colorado site sampled students in participating schools for Stage 1 screening; all students in participating schools in other sites were generally eligible for Stage 1 (see Danielson, et al., 2021 for details). § Colorado site collected the SDQ on only a subset of students in Stage 1; students with only BASC-2-BESS data were excluded from these analyses.
Figure 2
Figure 2
ROC curves showing BASC-2-BESS and SDQ total scores predicting any disorder, any internalizing disorder, and any externalizing disorder on the DISC, Project to Learn About Youth-Mental Health. ROC=Receiver Operating Characteristic; BASC-2-BESS = Behavior Assessment System for Children-2 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System; SDQ = Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Aebi M, Kuhn C, Banaschewski T, Grimmer Y, Poustka L, Steinhausen H-C, & Goodman R (2017). The contribution of parent and youth information to identify mental health disorders or problems in adolescents. Child & Adolescent Psychiatry & Mental Health, 11, 1–12. Doi: 10.1186/s13034-017-0160-9 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th edn. American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC.
    1. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). DSM-5 fact sheets. Psychiatry.org – DSM-5 Fact Sheets. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm/educational-resour...
    1. Anthony CJ, Brann KL, Elliott SN, & Garis EJ (2021). Examining the structural validity of the SSIS SEL brief scales—Teacher and student forms. Psychology in the Schools, 59(2), 260–280. Doi: 10.1002/pits.22607 - DOI
    1. Bitsko RH, Claussen AH, Lichstein J, Black LI, Jones SE, Danielson ML, Hoenig JM, … Ghandour RM (2022). Mental health surveillance among children — United States, 2013–2019. MMWR Supplement, 71(Suppl-2), 1–42. Doi: 10.15585/mmwr.su7102a1 - DOI - PMC - PubMed