The long-term aim of this project is to determine the validity and reliability of the Adjustment Scales for Children and Adolescents for use with Native American youths. "TheStandards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, APA, NCME, 1999) stress the need for validation of tests for use with specific subgroups within the population. To date, there appears to be no empirical investigations of the adequacy of commonly used behavior rating scales or measures ofpsychopathology for use with Native American youths. Without such data, school and clinical psychologists may not confidently utilize scales such as the ASCA for clinical assessment of Native American youths. Without valid measures of psychopathology, school and clinical psychologists cannot adequately assess psychopathology in Native American youths referred for evaluation and research on psychopathology among Native American youths is also adversely affected. The ASCA is a relatively new teacher report behavior rating scale that assesses six core syndromes (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactive, Solitary Aggressive-Provocative, Solitary Aggressive-Impulsive, Oppositional Defiant, Diffident, and Avoidant) and two supplementary syndromes (Delinquent and Lethargic/Hypoactive). The ASCA also provides two global or overall adjustment scales (Overactivity and Underactivity) that correspond to the second-order factors and are similar to the externalizing (or conduct problem) and internalizing (or withdrawal) dimensions consistently found in the majority of child psychopathology measures and in the child psychopathology literature. School psychologists working in participating school districts will be trained in the administration, scoring, and interpretation of the Adjustment Scales for Children and Adolescents and school psychologists will provide assistance in data collection. Large samples of specific tribes of Native American youths between the ages of 5 and 17 from Arizona and Minnesota will be obtained. Classroom teachers will anonymously complete ASCA forms on randomly selected boys and girls from their class who are of specific Native American tribal status. For each tribe, factor analyses will determine the factorial validity of the ASCA and indicate what and how many dimensions of psychopathology the ASCA measures. Internal consistency of the syndromes will also be assessed. Finally, the ability of the ASCA to discriminate seriously emotionally disabled students from normal students matched on key variables such as age and gender will be investigated to determine the discriminant validity of the ASCA with Native American youths.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter