Screening Tools for Children and Youth Behavioral Health

Tool Description Age Website

Adolescent Health The Adolescent Health Review is designed to assist 12 and up http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/main/idcp
Review (AHR) health care professionals in screening adolescents for lg?IdcService=GET_DYNAMIC_CONV
risks to their physical and emotional health. The ERSION&RevisionSelectionMethod=La
AHR is designed for use only as an adjunct to testReleased&Redirected=true&dDocNa
standard clinical practice. This instrument is not me=id_021361
recommended for children under age 12, adolescents
with limited English proficiency, or other adolescents
who have reading difficulties.
Adolescent Identifies high or low probability of substance 12-18 http://www.sassi.com/products/SASSI
Substance Abuse dependence and substance abuse disorders for clients A2/shopSA2-pp.shtml
Subtle Screening 12 to 18 years of age. The SASSI-A2 also provides
Inventory (SASSI- clinical insight into family and social risk factors,
A2) level of defensive responding, and consequences of
substance misuse.
Ages & Stages Quick social-emotional screen; can be administered 6 months – www.brookespublishing.com
Questionnaire – by a paraprofessional; has parent component; 5 years
Social Emotional available in English and Spanish
(ASQ-SE)
Behavioral and Designed for use in schools, mental health clinics, 5-18 http://www.proedinc.com/customer/Pr
Emotional Rating juvenile justice settings, and child welfare agencies, oductView.aspx?ID=3430&sSearchWor
Scales (BERS-2) the BERS-2 helps to measure the personal strengths d=
and competencies of children ages 5-0 through 18-11
in interpersonal strength, involvement with family,
intrapersonal strength, school functioning, affective
strength, and career strength.
Behavioral and The BESS has a combination of advantages that are 3-18 http://www.pearsonassessments.com/H
Emotional not matched by other screening tools: it collects AIWEB/Cultures/en-
Screening System information from three sources: parents, teachers, us/Productdetail.htm?Pid=PAaBASC2b
(BESS) and youth, it comes with companion assessment ess
tools (Behavior Assessment System for Children-2nd
edition (BASC-2), includes validity scales to check for
response biases, measures strengths in addition to
weaknesses, it can be used for children as young as 3
years of age.

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Brief Psychiatric A 21-item, clinician-based rating scale that is 3-18 www.commondataelements.ninds.nih.g
Rating Scale – designed for use in evaluating psychiatric problems ov/.../
Children (BPRS-C) of children and adolescents. Ratings are based on a 7-
point Likert scale, from “Not Present” to “Extremely
Severe.” Seven relatively independent factors are
represented by three items each. The BPRS-C is an
efficient way to document the complete symptom and
behavior picture.
Child and Assessing a youth's day-to-day functioning across 5-19 http://www.fasoutcomes.com/Content.
Adolescent critical life subscales and for determining whether a (preschool aspx?ContentID=12
Functional youth's functioning improves over time (problem scale
Assessment Scale behaviors, strengths, and goals). available)
(CAFAS)
Child and CANS-MH could be used as a functional assessment Birth http://www.praedfoundation.org/CANS
Adolescent Needs of both the child’s and the caregiver’s needs and through -MH%20Form.pdf
and Strengths strengths to summarize results of the mental health adolescence manual
Assessment-Mental assessment and guide intervention planning. http://www.praedfoundation.org/CANS
Health (CANS-MH) -MH%20Manual.pdf
Child Behavior The school-age assessment forms are the CBCL/6-18, 6-18 http://www.aseba.org/schoolage.html
Checklist (CBCL/6- completed by parents or surrogates; the TRF/6-18,
18) completed by teachers and other school staff; and the
YSR/11-18 completed by youths.
Connor’s Rating An instrument that uses observer ratings and self- 3-17; self- http://psychcorp.pearsonassessments.c
Scales-revised report ratings to help assess attention report 12-17 om/HAIWEB/Cultures/en-
(CRS-R) deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and evaluate us/Productdetail.htm?Pid=PAg116
problem behavior in children and adolescents.
Global Appraisal of Primarily designed for three things: first, it serves as Adolescents http://www.gaincc.org/GAINSS
Individual Needs – a screener in general populations to quickly and and adults
Short Screener accurately identify clients who would be flagged as
(GAINS-SS) having one or more behavioral health disorders on
the GAIN-I, suggesting the need for referral to some
part of the behavioral health treatment system; it also
rules out those who would not be identified as having
behavioral health disorders. Second, it serves as an
easy-to-use quality assurance tool across diverse
field-assessment systems for staff with minimal
training or direct supervision. Third, it serves as a

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 periodic measure of change over time in behavioral
health.
Guidelines for Questionnaires for younger adolescent, middle/older 11-21 http://www.ama-
Adolescent adolescents, and parents to screen for depression, assn.org/ama/pub/physician-
Preventative substance abuse, suicide and behavioral health. resources/public-health/promoting-
Services (GAPS) healthy-lifestyles/adolescent-
health/guidelines-adolescent-
preventive-services.page
Parent’s This is a screen for the behavioral and developmental Birth-8 http://www.pedstest.com/default.aspx
Evaluation of status of children birth to eight years. There is one
Developmental form for use with all ages. It consists of 10 questions
Status (PEDS) about specific concerns. The form can be completed
by parents in about five minutes and takes a brief
time for staff to score
Pediatric Symptom a psychosocial screen designed to facilitate the 4-16 (use Y- http://www.brightfutures.org/mentalhe
Checklist (PSC) recognition of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral PSC for ages alth/pdf/professionals/ped_sympton_c
problems so that appropriate interventions can be 11 and up) hklst.pdf
initiated as early as possible. Included are two
versions, the parent-completed version (PSC) and the
youth self-report (Y-PSC)
Personal Quick and cost-effective, the PESQ allows routine 12-18 http://portal.wpspublish.com/portal/p
Experience screening of adolescents for substance abuse age?_pageid=53,69732&_dad=portal&
Screening _schema=PORTAL
Questionnaire
Preschool and a behavioral rating instrument for use in evaluating 3-6 http://www.proedinc.com/customer/Pr
Kindergarten social skills and problem behavior patterns of oductLists.aspx?SearchType=All&Searc
Behavior Scales preschool and kindergarten aged children. There are hWords=preschool+and+kindergarten+
(PKBS-2) two major scales: social skills and problem behavior. behavior+scale&SearchWordModifier=
The social skills scale measures positive social skill All&CategoryID=0
characteristics of well-adjusted children. The
problem behavior scale measures problem behaviors
with young children who are experiencing
adjustment problems. The PKBS can be used as a
screening tool for at risk children; for formally
identifying and classifying children with severe
behavioral and emotional problems; as a tool for
developing appropriate interventions; and as a

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 research instrument. Reliability and validity are
discussed. Norms are provided.
Revised Behavior Used to screen for behavioral disorders in schools, as 5-18 http://www4.parinc.com/Products/Pro
Problem Checklist an aid in clinical diagnosis, to measure behavioral duct.aspx?ProductID=RBPC
– PAR edition change associated with psychological or
(RBPC) pharmacological interventions, as part of a battery to
classify juvenile offenders, and to select participants
for research on behavior disorders in children and
adolescents.
Reynolds Appropriate for use with adolescents in school and in 12-19 years http://www4.parinc.com/Products/Pro
Adolescent clinical use, as well as youth in juvenile detention, duct.aspx?ProductID=RAASI
Adjustment correctional facilities, and substance abuse treatment
Screening programs
Inventory (RAASI)
Rutter The Rutter Questionnaires are designed to assess the 9-13 Couldn’t locate website
Questionnaires social skills of children ages 9 to 13. Children
undergo a brief screening and a longer assessment.
Parents complete a 54-item questionnaire and
teachers complete a 26-item questionnaire.
Strengths & A brief behavioral screening questionnaire about 3-16 3-16 http://www.sdqinfo.org/
Difficulties year olds, it exists in several versions to meet the
Questionnaire needs of researchers, clinicians and educationalists.
Teen Screen (long 22 questions to assess risk behaviors (English and www.teenscreen.org
form) Spanish)
Teen Screen (short 10 questions to assess risk behaviors (English and www.teenscreen.org
form) Spanish)
Trauma Symptoms The TSCC allows you to measure posttraumatic stress 8-16 http://www4.parinc.com/Products/Pro
Checklist for and related psychological symptomatology in duct.aspx?ProductID=TSCC
Children (TCCC) children ages 8-16 years who have experienced
traumatic events, such as physical or sexual abuse,
major loss, or natural disasters, or who have been a
witness to violence

Sources and Resources:

Adolescent Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral for Treatment for Alcohol and Other Drug Use: Using the CRAFFT Screening
Tool http://www.mcpap.com/pdf/CRAFFT%20Screening%20Tool.pdf

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Adolescent Substance Abuse and Mental Health: A Public Health Priority http://www.plndp.org/Resources/GenericGuideFinal.pdf

Development, Validation, and Utility of Internet-Based, Behavioral Health Screen for Adolescents
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/126/1/e163.full.pdf+html

Identifying Mental Health and Substance Use Problems in Children and Adolescents, SAMHSA
http://www.samhsa.gov/children/508compliant_Identifying_MH_and_SU_Problems_1-30-2012.pdf

Massachusetts General Hospital, School of Psychiatry http://www2.massgeneral.org/schoolpsychiatry/screeningtools_table.asp list

of screening tools for specific mental health conditions and disabilities

Mental Health Screening and Assessment Tools for Children: A Literature Review
http://humanservices.ucdavis.edu/academy/pdf/final2mentalhealthlitreview.pdf

Mental Health Screening and Assessment Tools for Primary Care http://www.heardalliance.org/wp-
content/uploads/2011/04/Mental-Health-Assessment.pdf

Minnesota Department of Health http://www.health.state.mn.us/youth/providers/screening.html

TeenScreen®, promotes the integration of mental health in primary care http://www.teenscreen.org/wp-

content/uploads/Management-of-MH-in-PC-2.28.12.pdf

The Action Signs Project: A toolkit to help parents, educators and health professionals identify children at behavioral and
emotional risk http://www.thereachinstitute.org/files/documents/action-signs-toolkit-final.pdf