Sensitivity to change of youth treatment outcome measures: a comparison of the CBCL, BASC‐2, and Y‐OQ

Abstract

This study evaluated the relative sensitivity to change of the Child Behavior Checklist/6-18 (CBCL), the Behavior Assessment System for Children-2 (BASC-2), and the Youth Outcome Questionnaire 2.01 (Y-OQ). Participants were 134 parents and 44 adolescents receiving routine outpatient services in a community mental health system. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses were used to examine change trajectories for the 3 measures across 3 groups: parent informants, parent and adolescent dyads, and adolescent informants. Results indicated that for parent-report measures, the Y-OQ was most change sensitive; the BASC-2 and CBCL were not statistically different from each other. Significant differences in change sensitivity were not observed for youth self-report of symptoms. Results suggest that the Y-OQ may be particularly useful for evaluating change in overall psychosocial functioning in children and adolescents.

Does Insurance Matter? Implementing Dialectical Behavior Therapy with Two Groups of Youth Engaged in Deliberate Self-harm

“…However, the Y-OQ 2.01 has an RCI of 13, which is five points lower than the RCI on the Y-OQ 2.0 SR. The Y-OQ 2.01 has been used more extensively in outpatient care settings for a greater period of time than the adolescent self-report version (McClendon et al, 2011). …”

Psychometric Evaluation of the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA) in a Predominately Hispanic, Low-Income Sample

“…Sensitivity to change has been defined as the degree to which a measure is likely to reflect changes that occur as a result of participation in an intervention and represents an important psychometric property (Lambert and Hawkins 2004). Thus, we examined the ability of the BITSEA to evaluate intervention outcome consistent with research suggesting a measure that is sensitive to change can be useful in evaluating effectiveness, tracking progress, and treatment planning (McClendon et al 2011). …”

Measuring mental health and wellbeing outcomes for children and adolescents to inform practice and policy: a review of child self-report measures

“…However, we found no evidence of any measure being tested for bias or differential performance in different ethnic, regional or socio-economic status (SES) differences in the UK. Sensitivity to change evidence was only found for YOQ, ASEBA and SDQ, which were found to have the capacity to be used routinely to assess change over time [52]. The other measures may have such capacity but this was not identified by our searches.…”