Adolescent Psychopathology and Social Functioning

Objective: To establish the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of Social Adjustment Inventory for Children and Adolescents ( CSAICA) and to evaluate the association between psychopathology and social adjustment among young adolescents. Methods: The study sample consisted of school- based and clinical subjects. We recruited 676 grade 7 students from 6 junior high schools in Taipei City and County using multistage sampling method. The student participants and their parents completed the CSAICA and Children’s Behavioral Checklist (CBCL). Fifty-nine student participants and their parents were reassessed after a 2- week interval. Forty-seven clinical participants with ADHD based on DSM-IV criteria and their school controls (N= 94) aged 10-15 completed CSAICA. Results: The test-retest reliability and internal consistency for child reports ( Pearson correlation  =.36 ~ .84, intraclass correlation ICC = .33 ~ .82, Cronbach’s  = .69 ~ .88) and for parental reports ( =.33 ~ .82, ICC = .33 ~ .78 Cronbach’s = .67 ~ .89) indicated that most of the subscales of the CSAICA were stable. The parent-child agreement on the reports was highest in academic performance ( =.77) and lowest in problems with peers (=.17). Children tended to report having poorer social functioning than their parents did. For the eight behavioral syndromes derived from CBCL, children with behavioral syndromes showed increased severity of impairment in most domains of school and social functioning. The CSAICA also clinically distinguished children with ADHD from children without ADHD. clinically distinguished children with ADHD from children without ADHD.