Related Experiment Videos
Methodological challenges in assessing children's mental health services utilization.
Glorisa Canino1, Partrick E Shrout, Margarita Alegría
1Behavioral Sciences Research Institute, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan. jcanino@rcm.upr.edu
Mental Health Services Research
|July 2, 2002
Summary
The Service Assessment for Children and Adolescents (SACA) shows fair to substantial reliability and validity for Spanish-speaking youth, particularly for general service use. Accuracy varies for specific service types and professionals.
Area of Science:
- Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Mental Health Services Research
- Psychometric Evaluation
Background:
- Assessing mental health service utilization in children and adolescents is crucial for effective intervention.
- The Service Assessment for Children and Adolescents (SACA) is a key instrument, but its psychometric properties require validation in diverse populations.
- Spanish-speaking populations present unique challenges and needs in mental health service assessment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Service Assessment for Children and Adolescents (SACA) for Spanish-speaking children and adolescents.
- To determine the test-retest reliability and accuracy of SACA reports from both parental and youth perspectives.
- To assess the SACA's sensitivity in capturing lifetime and recent mental health service use against medical records.
Main Methods:
- A randomly selected clinical sample of 146 Puerto Rican children and adolescents (aged 4-17) participated.
- The SACA was administered twice to parents and children by independent interviewers over a 12-day interval.
- Parental and youth reports were compared with medical records to assess accuracy (sensitivity).
Main Results:
- Parents and children (aged 11-17) demonstrated fair to moderate reliability in reporting past year use of general mental health, outpatient, and school services.
- Substantial test-retest reliability was found for reporting residential and hospitalization services.
- Sensitivity was substantial for lifetime and outpatient service use, and moderate for past year mental health service use.
Conclusions:
- The SACA demonstrates acceptable reliability and validity for assessing general mental health service utilization among Spanish-speaking youth.
- Reliability varies for specific service types and professional details, suggesting cautious interpretation for these measures.
- The SACA is a useful tool for capturing service use in this population, with good sensitivity for broader service categories.