The development of mental health screening test for abused children

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to develop the Mental Health Screening Test for abused children in order to discriminate for abused children who have mental health problems. The test was set up by using John Briere's classification of psychological symptoms related to trauma which has 6 categories : Anxiety, Depression, Anger and Aggression, Posttraumatic Stress, Dissociation and Sexual Problems. The content and construct validity of each item was approved by one psychiatrist and two psychologists with expertise in child psychiatry and psychology. A 85 items test was tried out with 60 7th-9th grade students for item analysis and 71 items were judge to have intra-test validity, consisting of 13 items of Anxiety scale, 14 items of Depression scale, 12 items of Anger and Aggression scale, 12 items of Posttraumatic Stress scale, 13 items of Dissociation scale and 8 items of Sexual Problems scale. The reliability of Anxiety, Depression, Anger and Aggression, Posttraumatic Stress, Dissociation and Sexual Problems scales were 0.75, 0.82, 0.77, 0.81, 0.82 and 0.80, respectively. The concurrent validity of each scale was examined in 2 sample groups: a normal group, 410 normal or non-abused boys and girls students in 7th - 9th grades aged 12-16 years and gold standard group, 33 abused boys and girls aged 12-16 who were taken care of by the Care Network for Abused Children from June to August, 2004. Of the 6 scales, Depression, Posttraumatic Stress and Dissociation scale were found to be significant discriminate, at cut off points of 13, 12 and 8, respectively. However, the result should be considered along with the other relevant standard tests and doctor's diagnosis to make it more accurate and precise.