Emotional and behavioral profile assessment using the basc-2 with korean middle school students

Abstract

Korean middle school students are experiencing high rates of behavioral and emotional problems, suggesting a need for comprehensive screening instruments with strong psychometric properties in school settings. The present study investigated the utility of the Behavior Assessment System for Children-2 Self-Report of Personality, Adolescent Form (BASC-2 SRP-A) to assess clinical problems and adaptive strengths among Korean middle school students. For this revalidation study of the BASC-2, we first translated the BASC-2 SRP-A into Korean (K-BASC-2 SRP-A). Then, using a total of 458 Korean middle school students aged 12 to 15 years, we examined the factor structure and reliability of the clinical, adaptive, and composite scale scores of the K-BASC-2 SRP-A. We also used a separate sample of 45 middle school students to examine the convergent validity of a subset of the K-BASC-2 SRP-A scales targeting the common problem areas of anxiety, depression, and inattention. Based on the current results, we found strong psychometric properties of the K-BASC-2 SRP-A for use among adolescents in Korea, including a well-fitting factor structure consistent with the originally proposed model, adequate reliability estimates, and validity coefficients falling in the acceptable range. The K-BASC-2 SRP-A can offer the Korean school mental health field a useful and much-needed multidimensional screening measure for middle school youths.