The Beck Youth Inventories of Emotional and Social Adjustment (J. Beck, Beck & Jolly, 2001) have been a long time in coming, but finally we have a set of instruments to use with children, comparable to some of the adult Beck Scales. For years we have been receiving inquiries about the suitability of using the adult Beck Scales with children under the age of 14 and so have long recognized the need for a different set of scales for children.
In 1993, I began to develop this new set of psychological symptom scales for children in consultation with Dr. Aaron Beck. For a long time, I had wanted to refocus on children. I had started my career as a teacher and for many years had thought I would stay in the field of education for my whole career. When Aurelio Prifitera, Ph.D. and Larry Weiss, Ph.D. of The Psychological Corporation approached us about developing scales for children, I jumped at the chance. Eight years later, and with the addition of Sandra Prince-Embury, Ph.D. in 1996 and John Jolly, Ph.D. in 1997, the Beck Youth Inventories have come into being.
The Beck Youth Inventories are comprised of five self-administered scales which can be used individually or in any combination to assess symptoms of depression, anxiety, anger, and disruptive behavior along with self-esteem, in children aged 7 to 14. Each scale takes five to ten minutes to complete (and items can be read to children with reading disabilities). As you can imagine it was quite challenging translating important concepts into words that seven year olds could read and into language they could understand. We particularly wanted to include items that represented children's automatic thoughts (along with emotional, behavioral, physiological, and cognitive symptoms). The Beck Depression Inventory for Youth, for example, includes negative items about the self, one's life, and one's future. Common specific worries involved in childhood anxiety disorders are included in the Beck Anxiety Inventory for Youth. The Beck Anger Inventory for Youth emphasizes thoughts of being cheated, controlled, and treated unfairly.
In our own work, and through reports of mental health professionals who have field-tested the Inventories, we have found that the scales are a useful addition to the diagnostic process. It is quite helpful, for example, when a child is observed to be angry and disruptive, to determine whether he or she is also showing depressive symptomatology. Or, when a child reports physical complaints, to assess whether there are symptoms present suggestive of a depressive or anxiety disorder. We have found that the Inventories are quite helpful when children are unable or unwilling to verbalize their symptoms. The Inventories can also save a great deal of time, helping the clinician to quickly pinpoint a child's specific problems that need to be attended to in therapy. In addition, they can be used to measure progress.
We predict that the Inventories will prove valuable in educational settings. Schools are now required to screen for social and emotional difficulties of children that impair their ability to function in the school setting and the combination of the five scales can be used for wide-scale screening. Having identified children at risk, individual scales can be used to monitor symptom improvement. Likewise, we hope that outpatient, forensic, residential, inpatient, and medical settings will also utilize the Inventories for more comprehensive assessment and profiling of child patients or clients. We believe managed care companies that emphasize cost-effectiveness, client satisfaction, and therapeutic change will find the Inventories useful. By asking children to complete the Inventories periodically, clinicians can track treatment gains, adjust their treatment plans, identify serious problems (such as suicidal thoughts), and make appropriate interventions. Combined with therapist reports, the Inventories can help clinicians document treatment necessity.
The scales have been extensively field-tested and demonstrate a high degree of validity and reliability. And we thank the many clinicians involved in this effort. We are particularly grateful to Robert Steer, Ph.D., who devoted many hours to field-testing the Beck Youth Inventories, assessing their psychometric properties, and reviewing the manual. For more information about the Inventories, please contact The Psychological Corporation (1-800-872-1726; www.PsychCorp.com). And we would appreciate your (preferably emailed) feedback.
Beck, J.S., Beck A. T., and Jolly, J. (2001) Manual for the Beck Youth Inventories of Emotional and Social Adjustment. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
