Concurrent Validation of the Treatment Outcome Package (TOP) for Children and Adolescents

Abstract

The Treatment Outcome Package for children and adolescents (TOP) is a behavioral health and well-being assessment used widely in clinical and child welfare populations. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the concurrent validity of the Child and Adolescent versions of the TOP with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) with a community sample. Children and adolescents (N = 203) 3-18 years of age from a community sample completed the CBCL, the SDQ, and the TOP. Significant correlations emerged between the TOP and theoretically similar scales on the SDQ and the CBCL. Analyses demonstrated that the TOP has excellent concurrent validity on most subscales with both the CBCL and the SDQ. These results provide additional evidence for the TOP's utility and validity as a measure of psychological well-being and functioning.

Pluralistic counselling versus counselling as usual for young people presenting with addiction issues: A pilot randomised controlled trial

“…The SDQ‐TD score has been found to demonstrate adequate levels of internal consistency (Goodman, 2001; Goodman et al., 1998) and convergent validity with other child psychological distress measures such as the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) (Muris et al., 2003), the Boxall Profile (Couture et al., 2011) and the Treatment Outcome Package (TOP) (Baxter et al., 2016). However, it has been found to have poor internal consistency on some subscales, such as peer problems and prosocial (Liang et al., 2019); and conduct problems, hyperactivity and peer problems (Mellor et al., 2016; Roy et al., 2008).…”

Revisiting our approach to behavioral health referrals

“…16 These tools, which include subscales beyond general depression and anxiety (eg, sleep, substance misuse, social conflict), take 7 to 10 minutes to complete and provide outcome results across 12 symptom and 8 functional dimensions. As an example, the Treatment Outcome Package has good psychometric qualities (eg, reliability, construct and concurrent validity) for adults, 12 children, 14,19 and adolescents, 19 and can be administered through a secure online data collection portal. The Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms has demonstrated high construct validity and good convergent validity.…”