Cross-informant Agreement of the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale for Youth in Community Mental Health Settings
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
Keywords
Strength-based assessment, Cross-informant agreement, Multiple raters, Rating scales, Community mental health, Youth with disabilities
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.03.015
Abstract
Comprehensive assessment of youths' emotional and behavioral functioning includes obtaining data from multiple sources, such as parents and youth. Despite the shift in focus on youths' strengths and the increased availability of strength-based assessments, few studies have examined the cross-informant agreement between multiple raters of youths' behavioral and emotional strengths. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the cross-informant agreement between parent and youth ratings on the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale-Second Edition (BERS-2). The current study extends previous cross-informant research by examining the cross-informant agreement between parent and self-report ratings for youth served in community mental health centers and whether differences in cross-informant agreement exist between youth with and without a school-identified disability. Results indicated that cross-informant agreement on youths' strengths was acceptable, as most obtained correlations were greater than those typically reported on cross-informant agreement on deficit-based instruments. Furthermore, small but significant differences in cross-informant agreement for youth with and without a school-identified disability were observed for the BERS-2 Affective Strengths and School Functioning subscales. Overall, findings provide support for the reliability of multiple informants' ratings on the BERS-2 for measuring the strengths of youth referred for community mental health services.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
No
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Children and Youth Services Review, v. 53, p. 34-38
Scholar Commons Citation
January, Stacy-Ann A.; Lambert, Matthew C.; Epstein, Michael H.; Walrath, Christine M.; and Gebreselassie, Tesfayi, "Cross-informant Agreement of the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale for Youth in Community Mental Health Settings" (2015). Educational and Psychological Studies Faculty Publications. 236.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/esf_facpub/236
