Abstract
The current investigation sought to provide reliability and validity evidence for the Child Outcomes Survey (COS), a brief measure designed with a dual purpose to measure functioning and therapeutic relationship and to serve as a clinician-caregiver communication tool. Exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were performed using a sample of 774 responses collected from 15 provider sites throughout the state of Pennsylvania. Results of the EFA (n = 387) uncovered a three factor structure (family functioning, child functioning, and therapeutic relationship) which was confirmed in the CFA (n = 387). The internal consistency reliability of the three subscales ranged from α = .76 to α = .91. There was a significant relationship between the therapeutic relationship subscale and the use of the COS as a communication aid (r s = .50, p < .001). Findings support the COS as an accurate measure of functioning and therapeutic relationship and its utility as a communication aid between clinician and caregiver.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Notes
SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ®indicates USA registration.
References
Azocar, F., Cuffel, B., & McCulloch, J. (2007). Monitoring patient improvement and treatment outcomes in managed behavioral health. Journal for Healthcare Quality, 29, 4–12.
Bartlett, M. S. (1937). Properties of sufficiency and statistical tests. Proceedings of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, 160, 268–282.
Bourdon, K. H., Goodman, R., Rae, D. S., Simpson, G., & Koretz, D. S. (2005). The strengths and difficulties questionnaire: U.S. normative data and psychometric properties. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 44(6), 557–564.
Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16(3), 297–334.
Cronbach, L. J., & Shavelson, R. (2004). My current thoughts on coefficient alpha and its procedures. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 64(3), 391–418.
DeVillis, R. F. (1991). Scale development: Theory and applications. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Duffy, F. F., Chung, H., & Trivedi, M. (2008). Systematic use of patient-rated depression severity monitoring: Is it helpful and feasible in clinical psychiatry? Psychiatric Services, 59, 1148–1154.
Frabiger, L. R., Wegener, D. T., MacCallum, R. C., & Strahan, E. J. (1999). Evaluating the use of exploratory factor analysis in psychological research. Psychological Methods, 4(3), 272–299.
Ghazvini, A. S., & Readdick, C. A. (1994). Parent-caregiver communication and quality of care in diverse child care settings. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 9, 207–222.
Goodman, R. (1997). The strengths and difficulties questionnaire: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38(5), 581–587.
Harman, H. H. (1976). Modern factor analysis (3rd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago.
Harmon, C., Hawkins, E. J., Lambert, M. J., Slade, K., & Whipple, J. S. (2005). Improving outcomes for poorly responding clients: The use of clinical support tools and feedback to clients. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61, 175–185.
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1998). Fit indices in covariance structure modeling: Sensitivity to underparametized model misspecification. Psychological Methods, 3(4), 424–453.
IBM Corp. Released. (2011). IBM SPSS statistics for windows, version 20.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.
Kaiser, H. F. (1974). An index of factorial simplicity. Psychometrika, 39, 32–36.
Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.
Schauer, C., Everett, A., & del Vecchio, P. (2007). Promoting the value and practice of shared decision-making in mental health care. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 31, 54–61.
Schinka, J. A., Velicer, W. F., & Weiner, I. B. (2003). Handbook of psychology: Research methods in psychology. New York: Wiley.
Shapiro, S. S., & Wilk, M. B. (1965). An analysis of variance test for normality (complete samples). Biometrika, 52(3–4), 591–611.
Stein, B. D., Kogan, J. N., Hutchison, S. L., Magee, E. A., & Sorbero, M. J. (2010). Use of outcomes information in child mental health treatment: Results from a pilot study. Psychiatric Services, 61(12), 1211–1216. doi:10.1176/appi.ps.61.12.1211.
Stewart, M. A. (1995). Effective physician-patient communication and health outcomes: A review. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 152, 1423–1433.
SAS. (2012). SAS Software (v. 9.3). Cary, NC: SAS Institute.
Tabachnik, B. G., & Fiddell, L. S. (2006). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Jane Kogan, director of the UPMC Center for High-Value Health Care, Mr. James Gavin, President of Community Care Behavioral Health (CCBH) Organization, for contributions to the work reported in this manuscript. We would also like to acknowledge the contributions of Daniel Corwin and Christy Repep, communications team of the operations department (CCBH).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Terhorst, L., Hutchison, S.L., Sorbero, M.J. et al. Psychometric Investigation of a Brief Measure of Outcomes in Children’s Mental Health. Community Ment Health J 50, 204–208 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-013-9627-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-013-9627-1