Symptom CheckList-90-R: proposed scales in a probability sample of adolescents from the general population

To provide questionnaires for clinical assessment with scales adapted for adolescents would benefit clinical practice as well as research. The aim of this paper is to report normative data for adolescents on the SCL-90-R using a probability sample from the community. The participants were 1,663 adolescents, 845 girls and 818 boys, with an average age of 14.26 (SD = 1.36). They were selected through stratified cluster sampling with groups randomly selected from schools. Sampling error was estimated at 4% with a 95.5% confidence level. Cohen´s d effect sizes are reported for age-group. We found significant differences across participants according to gender and age on SCL-90-R Global Scores and Symptom Dimensions. Thus, we provide normative data, divided according to age and gender.