JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The Short Form of the Pediatric Symptom Checklist-Youth Self-Report (PSC-17-Y) is validate measure that assesses psychosocial problems overall and in three major psychopathological domains: internalizing, externalizing, and attention deficit hyperactivity, taking 5-10 minutes to complete. Prior research has established sound psychometric properties of the PSC-17-Y for English-speakers.

Objective:

To to extend the psychometric evidence for the acceptability of the PSC-17-Y in a large sample of Spanish adolescents, providing evidence of reliability and structure, convergent and discriminant validity, as well as longitudinal and gender invariance.

Methods:

Data were collected on 5430 pediatric community, ages 12 to 18 years, who filled out the PSC-17-Y twice during 2019 (7-months interval). We calculated Cronbach’s alpha and omega coefficients to test reliability, Pearson's correlations for convergent (distress) and criterion validity (well-being, quality of life and socioemotional skills), CFA analysis for structure validity, and a multigroup and longitudinal measurement invariance analysis for longitudinal and gender stability.

Results:

Within structural analysis for PSC-17-Y, the CFA analysis supported a correlated three-factor solution, which was also invariant longitudinally and across gender. All three sub-scales showed evidence of reliability with coefficients near or above .70. Moreover, scores of PSC-17-Y sub-scales were positively related with convergent measures and negatively with criterion measures. Normative data for PSC-17-Y are presented in the form of percentiles (75 and 90th).

Conclusions:

The present work provides the first evidence of reliability and validity of the Spanish version of PSC-17-Y administered over the internet to assess mental health problems among adolescents, maintaining the same domains of the long version.