engleski

CREATION AND VALIDATION OF CHILD AND YOUTH BEHAVIOR QUESTIONNAIRE IN CROATIA

In the social welfare system of the Republic of Croatia, there is no official instrument that enables professionals working in the social welfare system to comprehensively assess the phenomenological dimensions, nature and intensity of problems in children\'s behavior. In addition, information about the phenomenology of children\'s behavior is collected in an unsystematic manner and is not specific enough to tailor interventions to children\'s needs. In order to fill these gaps, the team of the project A STEP FORWARD (Iskorak) at the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation of the University of Zagreb has developed an instrument in partnership with UNICEF Office for Croatia and the Ministry responsible for social welfare. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the psychometric properties of a questionnaire to measure children\'s behavioral and emotional problems. The study was conducted from May to December 2022. The participants were children aged 12 to 18 years old who participated in measures of the social welfare system during 2022. A total of 233 children from 62 social welfare centers in Croatia were included in the study. The first version of the instrument consisted of 128 items and was developed based on a literature review and a qualitative focus group analysis on the phenomenology of behavioral problems in childhood and adolescence conducted with professionals from Croatia. Factor analysis was conducted to verify the structure of the questionnaire and to measure construct validity, Cronbach\'s alpha was used to check reliability and Pearson\'s coefficient was used to verify convergent validity for each subscale/syndrome. The final version of the instrument consists of 98 statements on 12 subscales describing specific aspects of various behavioral and emotional problems and is intended as a self-report instrument for children aged 12 to 18 years. Results indicate that created subscales and overall instrument have satisfactory psychometric properties and can be used to assess behavioral and emotional problems in children in the social welfare system. However, the results for the three subscales indicate the need for further research and validation. The practical implications of these findings were analyzed, as well as the potential application of this instrument in future research and clinical practice.

assessment ; instrument ; validation ; behavior problems ; children

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