Q:
How are Total Competence and Total Problems
scores used?
Q:
None of the Externalizing scales
is high, yet the Externalizing T Score is in the clinical
range. Why?
Q:
If a child scores high on the Delinquent Behavior
scale on a pre-2001 form (now designated the Rule-Breaking
Behavior scale), does that mean he is a Juvenile Delinquent?
Q:
What are the 2007 YSR Positive Qualities
(PQ) and ASR/ABCL Personal Strengths scales?
Q:
Could you explain what you mean by
“other problems”?
Q:
Should extremely low problem scores be
considered deviant?
Q:
Why are there big gaps between successive
raw scores on some scales?
Q:
How much of a change in a child’s
score should be considered a real change?
Q:
Does your software calculate a pre-test/post-test
difference score?
Q:
Are there norms for special groups, e.g.,
inner city children, Hispanic children, children with SED,
etc?
Q:
Can I get the factor loadings for the
problem items?
Q:
What is "reliability"?
Q:
What is "validity"?
Q:
The informant wrote in “Watches
television” or something clearly not an obsession or
compulsion under 9. Obsessions or 66. Compulsions. Should
the replacement item be scored missing or scored zero (Not
true)?
Q:
How are Total Competence and Total Problems scores used?
These
scores provide global indices of the child’s competencies
and problems, as seen by the respondent. For details of
cutpoints on these scales, refer to the appropriate manual
for your form.
The
Total Problems score can also be used to compare problems
in different groups and to assess change as a function of
time or intervention. The Total Competence score can be
used in similar ways, but is not as susceptible to change,
because it is determined partly by historical data, such
as repetition of grades in school.
Top
Q:
None of the Externalizing scales is high, yet the Externalizing
T-Score is in the clinical range. Why?
Moderate
levels of problems scattered over several syndrome scales
can add up to a high broad-band score. Also, the clinical
range starts at a lower level on the Internalizing, Externalizing,
and Total Problems scales than on the syndrome scales. See
the respective manuals for information about relations between
clinical cutpoints on different scales.
Top
Q:
If
a child scores high on the Delinquent Behavior scale on
a pre-2001 form (now designated the Rule-Breaking Behavior
scale), does that mean he is a Juvenile Delinquent?
No.
The names of the scales are mainly intended to summarize
the content of the scales. Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate
Dictionary defines the term “delinquent” as “conduct
that is out of accord with accepted behavior or law”
and “offending by neglect or violation of duty or law.”
Although
some items of the Delinquent Behavior syndrome, such as
stealing, are illegal, a high score on the scale for this
syndrome does not necessarily mean that a child has broken
laws or will be adjudicated delinquent. Instead, it means
that the child is reported to engage in more behaviors of
the empirically derived Delinquent Behavior syndrome than
are reported for normative samples of peers. Similarly,
the labels for other syndromes provide summary descriptions
for the kinds of problems included in the syndromes, rather
than being directly equivalent to any administrative or
diagnostic category.
See
the discussion of Empirically
Based Assessment for more information.
Top
Q:
What are the 2007 YSR Positive Qualities (PQ) and ASR/ABCL
Personal Strengths scales?
These
scales comprise items previously referred to as "socially
desirable items." On the YSR, ASR, and ABCL, the sums
of 0-1-2 ratings on these items wee significantly lower
for people referred for mental health services than for
people not referred for mental health services, after controlling
for demographic effects. To enable users to obtain scores
for the sum of these items and to compare them with norms,
versions of ADM starting with 7.0 (2007) sum the item ratings
into scores for a scale designated as Positive Qualities
(PQ) on the YSR and Personal Strengths on the ASR and ABCL.
The ADM Module for Ages 6-18 with Multicultural Options
enables users to display PQ scores in relation to their
choice of gender-specific Group 1 (low), Group 2 (medium),
or Group 3 (high) norms, as detailed in the Multicultural
Supplement to the Manual for the ASEBA School-Age Forms
and Profiles. The ADM Module for Ages 18-59 enables users
to display Personal Strengths scores in relation to age-
and gender-specific U.S. norms, as described in the Guide
for ASEBA Instruments for Adults/18-59 and Older Adults/60-90+
(2nd edition).
Top
Q:
Could
you explain what you mean by “other problems”?
The
“Other Problems” on the profile do not constitute
a scale. They are merely the items that were either reported
too seldom to be included in the derivation of syndromes
or did not qualify for the syndrome scales. There are thus
no associations among them to warrant treating them as a
scale. However, each of these problems may be important
in its own right, and they are all included in the Total
Problems score.
Top
Q:
Should extremely low problem scores be considered deviant?
Extremely
low scores merely reflect the absence of reported problems.
The profiles truncate the low end of the syndrome scales,
so that a T-score of 50 is the minimum obtainable on any
syndrome scale. However, nearly all children have at least
some problems. Extremely low scores may suggest that the
respondent has not understood the instrument, is poorly
informed about the child, or is not being candid. The manual
for each instrument provides guidelines for scores that
are low or high enough to raise doubts about validity.
Top
Q:
Why
are there big gaps between successive raw scores on some
scales?
Most
gaps directly reflect the distributions of scores in the
normative samples, where skewed distributions or clusters
of individuals at a particular raw score caused a large
change in percentiles from one score to the next. Gaps between
scores in the clinical range occur in scales where there
were only a few possible scores available for assignment
to T-scores in equal intervals.
Top
Q:
How
much of a change in a child’s score should be considered
a real change?
The
Appendix of each manual provides a table of standard errors
of measurement separately for referred and non-referred
children on each scale. A change of two standard errors
of measurement can be considered to exceed most chance fluctuations.
However, this is merely an approximation that is most accurate
for scores closest to the mean of the relevant distribution
shown in the appropriate manual. Users may want to apply
their own criteria for particular purposes. For example,
if they are assessing changes in intervention vs. control
groups, they may require changes for the intervention group
that significantly exceed changes for the control group
at p < .05. Be aware that scores on many assessment instruments
decline somewhat from a first to a second administration,
occuring over intervals over less than about a month (“test-retest
attenuation effect”), even without any intervention.
Top
Q:
Does
your software calculate a pre-test/post-test difference
score?
We could
not predict all the comparisons users and researchers might
want to make. Our manuals therefore supply the raw and scored
data file formats for you to use with your own statistical
package such as SAS and SPSS.
Top
Q:
Are
there norms for special groups, e.g., inner city children,
Hispanic children, children with SED, etc?
The
U.S. national norms are based on samples that are collectively
representative of the non-referred U.S. population with
respect to ethnicity, socio-economic status, urban-rural-suburban
residence, and geographic area. See our Bibliography
of Published Studies for studies of special groups.
Top
Q:
Can I get the factor loadings for the problem items?
For
the SCICA, the preschool forms, and the school-age forms,
factor loadings are displayed in the Appendix of the appropriate
manual.
Top
Q:
What
is "reliability"?
Reliability
refers to agreement between repeated assessments of phenomena
when the phenomena themselves are expected to remain constant.
The manuals for all ASEBA instruments report reliability
in terms of test-retest correlations and changes in mean
scores over periods of about 1 to 2 weeks.
Top
Q:
What
is "validity"?
Validity
is judged according to how well a procedure measures what
it is supposed to measure.
The
manuals for the ASEBA instruments provide data that support
the content validity, criterion-related validity, and construct
validity of the instruments.
Top
Q:
What
are the SES codes?
SES
codes are for scoring socio-economic status. You can create
your own SES coding system or use an established scale such
as the Hollingshead Occupation Scale as has been done in
our studies of ASEBA instruments. Reference: Hollingshead,
A.B. (1975). Four-factor index of social status. Unpublished
paper, New Haven, CT: Yale University, Department of Sociology.
Top
Q:
The
informant wrote in “Watches television” or something
clearly not an obsession or compulsion under 9. Obsessions
or 66. Compulsions. Should the item be scored missing or
scored zero (Not true)?
If nothing
else was entered that could qualify as an obsession or compulsion,
items 9 and 66 should be scored zero (Not true).
Top
