1. The Work and Social Adjustment Scale, Youth and Parent Versions: Psychometric Evaluation of a Brief Measure of Functional Impairment in Young People
- Author
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Martina Nord, Georgina Krebs, Tove Wahlund, Kristina Aspvall, Martina Gumpert, Maral Jolstedt, Per Andrén, Amita Jassi, David Mataix-Cols, Fabian Lenhard, and Chloe Volz
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,Parents ,Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder ,Social adjustment ,Functional impairment ,Adolescent ,Psychometrics ,Sensitivity and Specificity ,PsyArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Clinical Psychology ,03 medical and health sciences ,bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Psychology|Clinical Psychology ,0302 clinical medicine ,PsyArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Clinical Psychology|Clinical Child Psychology ,Developmental and Educational Psychology ,Humans ,bepress|Medicine and Health Sciences|Medical Specialties|Psychiatry ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Psychometric evaluation ,Child ,Reliability (statistics) ,Psychiatric Status Rating Scales ,Measure (data warehouse) ,Disability ,05 social sciences ,Work (physics) ,Discriminant validity ,Reproducibility of Results ,Parent-report ,Exploratory factor analysis ,030227 psychiatry ,Psychosocial Functioning ,PsyArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,PsyArXiv|Psychiatry ,Scale (social sciences) ,Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health ,bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences ,Female ,Original Article ,Psychology ,Social Adjustment ,Self-report ,050104 developmental & child psychology ,Clinical psychology - Abstract
Background: The Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS) is a brief five-item global measure of functional impairment that is widely used as an outcome measure in adult mental health. We have adapted the WSAS for its use in youth, the WSAS-Youth version (WSAS-Y) and WSAS-Parent version (WSAS-P). This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the scale in a large sample of youth seeking help for a range of psychiatric disorders. Method: The internal consistency, factor structure, convergent and divergent validity, test-retest reliability and sensitivity to change of the WSAS-Y/P were studied in 525 children and adolescents with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and related disorders (including Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Tourette’s Syndrome, and body-focused repetitive behaviour disorders) receiving treatment across two specialist clinics in London and Stockholm.Results: The internal consistency of the WSAS-Y/P was excellent across diagnostic groups and time points. Exploratory factor analysis extracted a single-factor of functional impairment, explaining in excess of 85% of the variance. The test-retest reliability was adequate. As expected the WSAS-Y/P correlated more strongly with other measures of functional impairment than with measures of symptom severity, indicating good convergent/divergent validity. Finally, the WSAS-Y/P was highly sensitive to change after treatment.Conclusion: The WSAS-Y/P retains the sound psychometric properties of the original WSAS and is highly sensitive to change after treatment.
- Published
- 2020