Portal for General Practitioners
Portal for General Practitioners
Diagnostic Assessment Tools
Child Self-Report Measures
> Anxiety & Depression
> Behaviour Problems
> Self-esteem
> Trauma
Adolescent & Adult Self-Report Measures
> Anger
> Anxiety & Depression
> Eating Disorders
> Self-esteem
> Social Support
> Substance Use
> Trauma
Featured below are a list of assessment tools recommended for individual use with child, adolescent, parent, and adult patients presenting with mental health concerns.
These well-validated tools cover a variety of pathologies and mental disorders, and are appropriate for pre-post comparative and outcome analysis.
Child Self-Report Measures
For Adolescent & Adult Self Report Measures click here.
Anxiety & Depression
Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC): The CES-DC (Weissman et al. 1980) is a 20-item self-report depression inventory tailored specifically for children between the ages of 6 and 17 years. Although the CES-DC is a self-report test completed by the child, it can be administered and it is primarily intended for medical practitioners who are alerted to paediatric mental health problems. The CES-DC can be accessed here.Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS): The RCMAS (Reynolds & Richmond 1997) is a 37-item revision of the Manifest Anxiety Scale (Castaneda, McCandless, & Palermo, 1965) that measures a variety of anxiety-related symptoms according to three factor-domains of general anxiety (physiological, worry/over-sensitivity, and social concerns/concentration).
Children and adolescents respond to each of the items in a "yes" or "no" format. Twenty-eight items yield a total anxiety score, and 9 items form a lie scale (assessing social desirability in responding). The mean scores for global anxiety in non-clinic school age children (Grades 1 through 12) is 13.84, with a lie scale mean of 3.56. The RCMAS has sound validity and reliability (Reynolds & Richmond, 1978; 1985).
The 37 item RCMAS (and scoring methodology) can be accessed here.
The Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSCL): The PSC (Jellinek et al. 1999) is a 30 item psychosocial screen designed to facilitate the recognition of cognitive, emotional, and behavioural problems in children. There are two different versions of the PSCL: the parent-completed version (PSC) and the youth self-report (Y-PSC for children 11+ years). The PSC and Y-PSC can be accessed here.
Behaviour Problems
Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL). The CBCL (Achenbach, 1991) is a device used to rate a child's problem behaviours and competencies (used either as a self-report measure or administered through an interview) across both internalising and externalising scales. The CBCL can also be used to measure a child's change in behaviour over time or following a treatment.
The questionnaire is broken into two parts: 20 competence items and 120 items on behaviour or emotional problems during the past 6 months. A sample of the CBCL for ages 6-18 (usually completed by parent - self-report) can be accessed here.
Self-esteem
The Self-esteem Inventory (SEI). The SEI (Coopersmith, 1967) is a 58-item self report questionnaire that measures self-concept and personal worth in four factordomains (general self, social self-peers, home-parents, and school-academic). The inventory is suitable for administration with children aged between 8 and 15, requiring them to indicate whether items are “like them” or “unlike them”. While there are not exact criteria, higher scores indicate higher self-esteem. The 58 Item SEI can be accessed and completed online (although the site only provides a brief overview of responses and offers users the opportunity to purchase the whole report). More.
Trauma
Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCL). The TSCL (Briere, 1996) is a 54 item self-report inventory that assesses the symptoms of experienced trauma across several sub-domains, including two validity scales, and six clinical scales (Anxiety, Anger, Depression, Post-traumatic Stress, Dissociation [with two subscales: Overt Dissociation and Fantasy], and Sexual Concerns [with two subscales: Sexual Preoccupations and Distress]). The TSCL has been well validated, and is widely used in clinical research (Briere, 1996). A shortened 44 item version of the TSCL can be accessed here.
Adolescent & Adult Self-Report Measures
Anger
Novaco Anger Inventory - Short Form (NAI-25). The NAI-25 was adapted from the long form (Novaco, 1975) and contains 25 of the original 90 items. The NAI - Long Form - purports to measure the degree of provocation or anger people would feel if placed in certain situations. From preliminary examination of the short form, the scale reliably only consists of one factor (anger). NAI-25 can be accessed here.
Anxiety & Depression
A variety of simple checklists are often used by GPs to identify anxiety and depression. The Depression Checklist (screening for Major Depression), K10 (screening for psychological distress) and SPHERE Questionnaire (identifying psychological or physical symptoms commonly experienced by people with depression or anxiety) are able to be completed & scored (and subsequently printed) online at the Beyond Blue website (no record of test results or identity are retained). All of these checklists can be accessed here.
Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS): The DASS (Lovibond & Lovibond,1995) is self report instrument designed to measure the three related negative emotional states of depression, anxiety and tension/stress. The DASS has a short 21 item version and a longer 42-item version. Both versions (& scoring template) can be accessed here.
Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ). The TCQ (Wells & Davies, 1994) is a 30-item instrument that examines the effectiveness of strategies used for the control of unhelpful (negative automatic) thoughts characteristic of generalised anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and post-traumatic stress disorders (in addiction to depression and hypochondriasis). Effective thought control is implicit in several therapeutic approaches, and as such the TCQ serves as a good measure of treatment efficacy. The TCQ can be accessed here.
Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ): The MFQ (Angold & Costello, 1987) is comprised of 5 different versions (Child self report MFQ – long version; Child self report MFQ – short version; Parent MFQ reporting about the child – long version; Parent MFQ reporting about the child – short version; and Parent self report MFQ). These questionnaires are designed to assess the affect of adolescents aged between 13-18. The long version contain 33 items and the short version 13 items. All versions of the MFQ can be accessed for free, however a password must first be obtained by registering the practitioners details. More.
Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI): The BAI (Beck, 1990) is a 21-item self-report measure of the severity of anxiety in adolescents and adults. It has been found to have high levels of internal consistency and validity with other measures. The BAI can be downloaded here.
Eating Disorders
The Eating Attitudes Test (EAT): The EAT (Garner, Olmsted, Bohr, & Garfinkel, 1982) is a screening tool that detects disturbed eating patterns. It is reliable and valid and has been used widely with girls and women. The EAT can be completed and scored online or downloaded here.
Self-esteem
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). The RSES (Rosenberg, 1965) is a 10 item self-report measure that examines global feelings of self-worth and self-acceptance in adolescents. The scale was revised in 1978 by Bachman, O'Malley and Johnston (1978), and is psychometrically sound (Rosenberg, 1989). There are no formal scoring interpretations other than higher scores equate to having higher self-esteem, whereas low self-esteem scores reportedly fall close to or below the scale’s median split. RSES can be accessed here.
Social Support
Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS): The MSPSS (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet & Farley, 1988) is a validated 12-item instrument designed to assess perceptions about social support (believed to contribute a moderating influence between stressful life events and depression). Items are divided into factor groups (family, friends and a significant other) relating to the source of support. High scores indicate high levels of perceived support. Research has demonstrated the MSPSS to have good internal/test-retest reliability. Access MSPSS here.
Substance Use
Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): The AUDIT (Australian Government: Department of Veteran’s Affairs) was derived from a World Health Organisation Collaborative Study involving six countries and is estimated at having over 90% accuracy in detecting alcohol problems. A score of 8 or above has been frequently used to indicate the presence of alcohol problems although a score of 4 may reflect the same in adolescents and women. The AUDIT (and scoring instructions) can be accessed here.
CAGE Assessment (Alcohol Abuse): The CAGE Questionnaire (Mayfield, McLeod & Patricia Hall, 1974) is a 4-item screening instrument for clinically significant alcohol problems in a variety of treatment and non-treatment settings. The name “CAGE” is an acronym formed by taking the first letter of key words from each of the four questions. The assessment tool has sound internal consistency (Hays et al., 1995). A positive score on the CAGE is meant to alert the clinician to engage in further inquiry about a patient’s alcohol use patterns and alcohol-related problems and symptoms. It takes less than 1 minute to administer and score the CAGE. An online (self-scoring version) of CAGE can be found here.
Substance Dependence Severity Scale (SDSS): The SDSS (Miele et al., 2000) is a semi-structured clinical interview designed to obtain a measure of severity of DSM-IV substance use disorders and is useful for assessing treatment outcomes.
As a continuous measure of drug and alcohol dependence severity, the SDSS has shown good test-retest reliability and cross-sectional and predictive validity. The scale is designed for adults and adolescents over the age of 16 years, and can be accessed (including scoring methodology) here.
Trauma
Impact of Event Scale – Revised (IES-R): The IES-R (Weiss & Marmar, 1997) is a The IES-R is a 22 item questionnaire that examines intrusion, avoidance, hyperarousal (anger, irritability, heightened startle response, difficulty concentrating, and hypervigilance); and dissociative (flashbacks) symptoms which parallel the DSM-IV criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The Scale has good reliability, validity and sensitivity to change (Briere, 1997), and is one of the most widely used measures of PTSD-related symptoms. The scale (and scoring) can be found here.
