Social-Emotional Screening Instruments
Minnesota Interagency Developmental Screening Task Force – http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/fh/mch/devscrn/instruments.html
Tool
Ages and Stages Questionnaire - Social Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional
Emotional (ASQ-SE) - 2002
Assessment (BITSEA) - 2006
Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) 1998
Purpose
“An easy-to-use tool with a deep,
exclusive focus on children’s social and
emotional behavior.”
“A screener for socialemotional/behavioral problems and
delays in competence.”
“A a brief screening questionnaire that
is used by pediatricians and other health
professionals to improve the
recognition and treatment of
psychosocial problems in children.”
Developmental
Areas or
Methods
Addresses 7 behavioral areas: selfregulation, compliance,
communication, adaptive functioning,
autonomy, affect, interaction with
people.
Externalizing, internalizing,
dysregulation, and competencies.
Screens for general psychosocial
problems.
Population and
age span
targeted by tool
6-60 months (with separate
questionnaires for 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36,
48, and 60 month intervals; each
interval can be used for an age range).
12-36 months
4-18 years
Cultural, ethnic,
linguistic
sensitivity
Written at 6th grade reading level.
Normed on an ethnically and socially
diverse population.
Test population was a large
representative sample.
Written at 5th-6th grade level.
Written at 5th-6th grade level.
Available in English and Spanish
Available in English, Spanish, and
Chinese.
Inter-rater: 0.82
Test-retest: 0.82-0.90
Test-retest: 0.84-0.91
Test-Retest: 0.94
Inter-rater (mother/father): 0.58-0.79
Reliability
Available in English and Spanish
Minnesota Interagency Developmental Screening Task Force (reviewed 09/2014)
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Tool
Ages and Stages Questionnaire - Social Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional
Emotional (ASQ-SE) - 2002
Assessment (BITSEA) - 2006
Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) 1998
Validity
Concurrent: 0.93
Evaluator ratings of dysregulation
correlated significantly with ITSEA;
ITSEA dysregulation correlated with
evaluator ratings of
Internalizing/Externalizing problems
The report issued by the authors used
specificity and sensitivity measures for
validity
Sensitivity/
Specificity
Sensitivity: 71-85%
Sensitivity: 80-99%
Sensitivity: 80-95%
Specificity: 90-98%
Specificity: 80-89%
Specificity: 68-100%
Practicality (time
to administer &
score, ease of
administration)
10-15 minutes to complete.
7-10 minutes to administer
2-5 minutes if a parent completes; 9-12
minutes if an interview is needed.
Minimum
expertise for
screeners and
scorers
Can be scored by a paraprofessional.
Individuals who are trained in the
administration of psychometric tests
should assess children’s results.
No special qualifications for scoring.
Online
Component
Online scoring and reporting with ASQ
Online
None
Can be completed online on PSC
website.
Cost (varies over
$225 for starter kit
$116 for BITSEA Kit, $44.50 for 50
parent forms or childcare provider
forms
Available online for free download
Publisher
Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
Pearson Assessments
Massachusetts General Hospital
time; contact
publisher)
1-5 minutes to score.
2 minutes to score.
Manual, video, and seminars available.
www.brookespublishing.com/resource- www.pearsonclinical.com
center/screening-andassessment/asq/asq-se/
Minnesota Interagency Developmental Screening Task Force (reviewed 09/2014)
www.massgeneral.org/psychiatry/servic
es/psc_home.aspx
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