Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Reliability and Validity of the Child and Adolescent Behavior Assessment (CABA): A Brief Structured Scale

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Child Psychiatry & Human Development Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Use of valid, affordable, accessible, and brief measures facilitates the assessment of mental health outcomes. The Child and Adolescent Behavior Assessment Scale, a brief, structured scale, assesses problem behavior through patient and/or informant report. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the scale’s psychometric properties. In the cross-sectional study presented, a large national sample of youth (aged 5–18) admitted for psychiatric treatment (N = 32,689) was examined. The two major domains of problem behavior assessed were Internalizing and Externalizing. Reliability was good to excellent with alpha levels ranging from 0.874 to 0.917. Additional items measured Risk Behavior (α = 0.648). Subscale total scores correlated well with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale for Children, 9-item version (BPRS-C-9). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the three-factor, multidimensional model of problem behavior as satisfactory for child and adolescent use, although further research is required to refine some items for clarity and improved model fit.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Ries Merikangas K, Jian-ping H, Burstein M et al (2010) Lifetime prevalence of mental disorders in US adolescents: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication-Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A). J Am Acad Child Psychiatry 49:980–989

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Griffith A (2010) Committee on the prevention of mental disorders and substance abuse among children, youth, and young adults, National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine: preventing mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders among young people: progress and possibilities. J Child Fam Stud 19(5):675–676

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2013) Mental health surveillance among children—United States, 2005–2011. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 62(02):1–35

    Google Scholar 

  4. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1999) Mental health: a report of the surgeon general. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Rockville

  5. IsHak W, Burt T, Sederer L (2002) Outcome measurement in psychiatry: a critical review, xvii. American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc, Arlington

  6. Baer L, Blais M (2010) Handbook of Clinical Rating Scales and assessment in psychiatry and mental health. Humana Press, Totowa

    Book  Google Scholar 

  7. Lambert M, Schmitt N, Samms-Vaughan M, An J, Fairclough M, Nutter C (2003) Is it prudent to administer all items for each child behavior checklist cross-informant syndrome? Evaluating the psychometric properties of the youth self-report dimensions with confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory. Psychol Assess 15(4):550–568

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Gale J, Pfefferbaum B, Suhr M, Overall J (1986) The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale for Children: a reliability study. J Clin Child Psychol 15(4):341–345

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Hughes C, Rintelmann J, Emslie G, Lopez M, MacCabe N (2001) A revised anchored version of the BPRS-C for childhood psychiatric disorders. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol 11(1):77–93

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Hughes C, Melson A (2008) Child and adolescent measures of diagnosis and screening. In: Rush AJ Jr, First MB, Blacker D (eds) Deborah Blacker Handbook of psychiatric measures (2nd ed). American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc, Washington

  11. White G, Jellinek M, Murphy J (2010) The use of rating scales to measure outcomes in child psychiatry and mental health. In: Baer L, Blais MA (eds) Handbook of clinical rating scales and assessment in psychiatry and mental health. Humana Press, Totowa, pp 175–194

  12. Deighton J, Tymms P, Wolpert M et al (2013) The development of a school-based measure of child mental health. J Psychoeduc Assess 31(3):247–257

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Urben S, Gloor A, Baier V et al (2015) Patients’ satisfaction with community treatment: a pilot cross-sectional survey adopting multiple perspectives. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 22(9):680–687

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th edn. American Psychiatric Association, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  15. Hu L, Bentler P (1999) Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Struct Equ Model 6(1):1–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Akaike H (1987) Factor analysis and AIC. Psychometrika 52(3):317–332

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Bentler P (1990) Comparative fit indexes in structural models. Psychol Bull 107(2):238–246

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Jöreskog K, Sörbom D (1993) LISREL 8: structural equation modeling with the SIMPLIS command language. Scientific Software International, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  19. Steiger J (1990) Structural model evaluation and modification. Multivariate Behav Res 25:214

    Google Scholar 

  20. George D, Mallory M (2010) SPSS for windows step by step: a simple guide and reference, 17.0, 10th edn. Pearson, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  21. Nunnally J, Bernstein I (1994) Psychometric theory, 3rd edn. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  22. Olsson U (1979) Maximum likelihood estimation of the polychoric correlation coefficient. Psychometrika 44(4):443–460

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Lorenzo-Seva U, Ferrando P (2013) FACTOR 9.2: a comprehensive program for fitting exploratory and semiconfirmatory factor analysis and IRT models. Appl Psychol Meas 37:497–498

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Horn J (1965) A rationale and test for the number of factors in factor analysis. Psychometrika 30:179–185

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. O’Connor B (2000) SPSS and SAS programs for determining the number of components using parallel analysis and Velicer’s MAP test. Behav Res Methods Instrum Comput 32:396–402

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Velicer W, Eaton C, Fava J (2000) Construct explication through factor or component analysis: a review and evaluation of alternative procedures for determining the number of factors or components. In: Goffin RD, Helmes E (eds) Problems and solutions in human assessment: Honoring Douglas N. Jackson at seventy. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, pp 41–71

  27. Nunnally J (1978) Psychometric theory, 2nd edn. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  28. Cronbach L (1951) Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika 16:297–334

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Briggs S, Cheek J (1986) The role of factor analysis in the evaluation of personality scales. J Pers 54:106–148

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Medicare Benefit Policy Manual 2(20). http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Guidance/Manuals/Internet-Only-Manuals-IOMs-Items/CMS012673.html. Published June 27, 2014. Accessed 6 Oct 2014

  31. Dickey B (2002) Outcome measurement from research to clinical practice. In: IsHak WW, Burt T, Sederer L (eds) Outcome measurement in psychiatry: a critical review. American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc, Arlington, pp 15–22

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the valuable comments and suggestions of Dominique Simons, MS and Elizabeth Vera-Bolanos, MS who are employed by a subsidiary of Universal Health Services, Inc., and Sara E. Brady, PhD of Elite Research, LLC. These individuals contributed through uncompensated manuscript review. Dr. Amanda Morin had full access to all data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. Dr. Morin has served as consultant to a subsidiary of Universal Health Services, Inc. and Stacy Miller (Stacy.Miller@horizonhealth.com), Johan Smith (Johan.Smith@horizonhealth.com), and Karen Johnson (Karen.Johnson@uhsinc.com) are employees of a subsidiary of Universal Health Services, Inc. The authors report no other potential conflicts of interest. No part of this manuscript nor the data represented have been published previously and are not under consideration elsewhere. The views expressed in this publication are the authors’ and do not represent the official position of Universal Health Services, Inc. or any of its subsidiaries, whose funding facilitated the collection of these data and preparation of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, USA

    Amanda Leigh Morin

  2. Universal Health Services, Inc., Lewisville, TX, USA

    Amanda Leigh Morin, Stacy Jo Miller, Johan R. Smith & Karen E. Johnson

  3. Mental Health Outcomes, 1965 Lakepointe Dr. Suite 100, Lewisville, TX, 75057, USA

    Amanda Leigh Morin, Stacy Jo Miller & Johan R. Smith

Authors
  1. Amanda Leigh Morin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Stacy Jo Miller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Johan R. Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Karen E. Johnson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amanda Leigh Morin.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 19 kb)

Supplementary material 2 (DOCX 19 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Morin, A.L., Miller, S.J., Smith, J.R. et al. Reliability and Validity of the Child and Adolescent Behavior Assessment (CABA): A Brief Structured Scale. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 48, 200–213 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-016-0632-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-016-0632-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation