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Updated: Apr 3, 2026
Measuring the Functional Abilities of Children Aged 3-6 Years Old with Observational Methods and Computer Tools
Published on: June 20, 2020
Psychometric Evaluation of the Symptoms and Functioning Severity Scale (SFSS) Short Forms with Out-of-Home Care Youth
Thomas J Gross1, Kristin Duppong Hurley2, Matthew C Lambert3
1University of Nebraska - Lincoln, 213 Barkley Memorial Center, Lincoln, NE 68583, 402-472-5484.
Background:
There is a need for brief progress monitoring measures of behavioral and emotional symptoms for youth in out-of-home care. The Symptoms and Functioning Severity Scale (SFSS; Bickman et al., 2010) is one measure that has clinician and youth short forms (SFSS-SFs); however, the psychometric soundness of the SFSS-SFs with youth in out-of-home care has yet to be examined.
Objective:
The objective was to determine if the psychometric characteristics of the clinician and youth SFSS-SFs are viable for use in out-of-home care programs.
Methods:
The participants included 143 youth receiving residential treatment and 52 direct care residential staff. The current study assessed internal consistency and alternate forms reliability for SFSS-SFs for youth in a residential care setting. Further, a binary classification test was completed to determine if the SFSS-SFs similarly classified youth as the SFSS full version for low- and elevated-severity.
Results:
The internal consistency for the clinician and youth SFSS-SFs was adequate (α = .75 to .82) as was the parallel forms reliability (r = .85 to .97). The sensitivity (0.80 to 0.95), specificity (0.88 to 0.97), and overall accuracy (0.89 to 0.93) for differentiating low and elevated symptom severity was acceptable.
Conclusions:
The clinician and youth SFSS-SFs have acceptable psychometrics and may be beneficial for progress monitoring and additional research should clarify their potential for progress monitoring of youth in out-of-home programs.
