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The relation of standardized mental health screening and categorical assessment in detained male adolescents

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ABSTRACT

Having an effective triage tool is an important step toward a careful use of the restricted time and qualified personnel to perform comprehensive psychiatric assessment in juvenile justice settings. The aims of this study were to examine the construct validity of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Inventory—second version (MAYSI-2), and its likelihood to identify youths who might have a psychiatric disorder. Data from up to 781 male adolescents (mean age = 16.73 years) were gathered as part of the standardized mental health screening and assessment in two all-male Youth Detention Centers in the Netherlands. Categorical assessments were based on two structured diagnostic interviews. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and the area under the curve were calculated to evaluate the likelihood of the MAYSI-2 to identify youths with a psychiatric disorder. Youths with a disorder scored significantly higher on the corresponding MAYSI-2 subscale than youths without a disorder. In the total sample, 70 % of the youths with a disorder met the Caution cut-off criteria on at least one MAYSI-2 scale, while youths without a psychiatric disorder were very unlikely to meet cut-off criteria for multiple MAYSI-2 scales. Overall, the sensitivity was slightly better when analyses were repeated in groups of youths from various ethnic origins. The findings supported the construct validity of the Dutch MAYSI-2 and suggested that the MAYSI-2 is a valid mental health screening tool that may serve relatively well as a triage tool. Its effectiveness, however, may differ between ethnic groups.

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Notes

  1. There were no significant differences between both samples regarding all the other variables that will be used in this study (i.e., MAYSI-2 raw scores, percentage of boys above MAYSI-2 Caution cut-offs, and percentage of boys with psychiatric disorders).

  2. In the US study [11], the prevalence of participants that met at least one disorder (61 %) was not that much higher than the 48 % of the boys in the present study (see n = 405 subsample). Yet, approximately 50 % of the sample was above or at the Caution cut-off on at least one MAYSI-2 scale compared to 88 % in the US study [11]. This suggests that the difference in efficiency between both countries is not likely to be caused by differences in the prevalence of psychiatric disorders per se but rather by differences in the percentage of youths at or above the caution cut-off. These latter differences in percentages of youths at or above MAYSI-2 cut-offs may at least partially be explained by differences in the organization of juvenile justice and health care between the US and the Netherland (e.g., [26]).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Curium-LUMC, Endegeesterstraatweg 27, AK 2342, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Olivier F. Colins, Eva Mulder & Robert Vermeiren

  2. Academic Workplace Forensic Care for Youth (Academische Werkplaats Forensische Zorg voor Jeugd), Postbus 94, 7200 AB, Zutphen, The Netherlands

    Olivier F. Colins, Eva Mulder & Robert Vermeiren

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North Worcester, MA, 01655, USA

    Thomas Grisso

  4. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, VU Medical Center Amsterdam, Postbus 303, 115ZG, Duivendrecht, The Netherlands

    Robert Vermeiren

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  1. Olivier F. Colins
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  4. Robert Vermeiren
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Correspondence to Olivier F. Colins.

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Colins, O.F., Grisso, T., Mulder, E. et al. The relation of standardized mental health screening and categorical assessment in detained male adolescents. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 24, 339–349 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-014-0584-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-014-0584-1

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