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The predictive value of the pediatric symptom checklist in 5-year-old Austrian children
Leonhard Thun-Hohenstein1, Stefanie Herzog
1Institute for Research and Education in Child & Adolescent Neuropsychiatry (KNIFFF), Salzburg, Austria. L.Thun-Hohenstein@salk.at
Insights
The Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) effectively screens preschoolers for behavioral issues, showing better accuracy with an optimized cutoff score. This validated tool is suitable for German-speaking regions.
Area of Science:
- Child psychology
- Psychosocial screening
- Pediatric mental health
Background:
- The Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) is used for psychosocial screening in children.
- Its predictive value in relation to the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) requires validation in preschool populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the predictive value of the PSC for the CBCL in preschool children.
- To determine an optimal cutoff score for the PSC in this age group.
Main Methods:
- A study involving 179 preschool children from 30 nursery schools in Salzburg.
- Parent-completed PSC and CBCL questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics, non-parametric correlations, ROC analysis, sensitivity, and specificity.
Main Results:
- The mean PSC score was 10.74, significantly lower than international/Austrian values and differing between genders.
- The international PSC cutoff of 24 was found to be too high.
- An optimized cutoff of 15.5 yielded high sensitivity (81.1%) and specificity (80.2%) for detecting impairment.
Conclusions:
- The Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) is a valid psychosocial screening instrument for preschool children.
- The study recommends an optimized cutoff score of 15.5 for improved accuracy.
- The PSC is applicable for use in German-speaking countries.
Unlabelled:
In this investigation the predictive value of the pediatric symptom checklist (PSC) in relation to the child behaviour checklist (CBCL) was studied in preschool children. Thirty nursery schools in the city and province of Salzburg participated in the study and a total of 179 correctly completed questionnaires (82 male and 97 female children) were analysed. Questionnaires were completed by the parents. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics (SPSS 11.0). Predictive validity was determined by non-parametric correlations and calculations of sensitivity and specificity, as well as an ROC analysis. The mean PSC at 10.74 +/- 6.8 was found to be below both international and Austrian values for this age group and was also found to differ significantly between girls (9.33 +/- 6.2) and boys (12.4 +/- 7.1; p < 0.01). The recommended international cut-off point at 24 is too high. CBCL analysis resulted in 12.6% impaired (T value between 60 and 64) and 8.2% pathological children (T value > 64). PSC sensitivity in relation to the CBCL total score was 15.7% and specificity 98.5%. The cut-off was optimized with the help of ROC analysis and optimum specificity (80.2%) and sensitivity (81.1%) were obtained at a cut-off value of 15.5. This cut-off would allow 24.6% to be detected as impaired, which is somewhat above the frequency (20.2%) found by CBCL.
Conclusion:
To summarize, the PSC is a valid psychosocial screening instrument, at least for this age group, and thus applicable for German-speaking countries.
