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Screening for personality disorder in incarcerated adolescent boys: preliminary validation of an adolescent version of the standardised assessment of personality - abbreviated scale (SAPAS-AV) Full Text
BMC Psychiatry, 07/31/2012
Clinical Article
Kongerslev M et al. – This study provides preliminary evidence of the validity, reliability, and usefulness of the screen in secure institutions for adolescent male offenders. It can be used in juvenile offender institutions with limited resources, as a brief, acceptable, staff–administered routine screen to identify individuals in need of further assessment of personality disorder or by researchers conducting epidemiological surveys.
Methods- The authors adapted a rapid screen for the identification of PD in adults (Standardised Assessment of Personality - Abbreviated Scale; SAPAS) for use with adolescents and then carried out a study of the reliability and validity of the adapted instrument in a sample of 80 adolescent boys in secure institutions.
- Participants were administered the screen and shortly after an established diagnostic interview for DSM-IV PDs.
- Nine days later the screen was readministered.
- A score of 3 or more on the screening interview correctly identified the presence of DSM-IV PD in 86% of participants, yielding a sensitivity and specificity of 0.87 and 0.86 respectively.
- Internal consistency was modest but comparable to the original instrument.
- 9-days test-retest reliability for the total score was excellent.
- Convergent validity correlations with the total number of PD criteria were large.