The ABCs of Bullying
Addressing, Blocking, and Curbing School Aggression

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Screening Tools for General Psychiatric Issues

Problem Oriented Screening Instrument for Teenagers (POSIT)

POSIT is available in English and Spanish and is geared for adolescent ages 12-19 years old. This screening tool uses a yes/no response format, and is designed to identify a problem or the potential need for service in 10 functional areas. These include (NIAAA, 2001):

There are 139 items and 10 problem areas. It takes roughly 25 minutes to administer, with no training necessary. Scoring takes 2 minutes. POSIT can be used to collect baseline data when examining a large adolescent population. There is no cost for POSIT.

To receive a free copy, go to the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information at www.health.org.

Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 6-18 (CBCL/6-18)

The Child Behavior Checklist is an 118-item questionnaire answered by parents, teachers, and other caregivers about children between the ages of 6-18. It was designed by Thomas Achenbach and has been field tested and normed for various populations.

The purposes of the checklist are to determine what services are appropriate for a particular child, itemize what problems the child is having, and provide a guide for future intervention. The questions create three kinds of behavior scales:

Each item names a certain type of behavior and the parent/caregiver is asked whether or not this is true, somewhat or sometimes true, or very often true about the child. It takes about 15 minutes to complete.

For ordering information, e-mail at Checklist@uvm.edu.

The National Institute on Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children IV (DISC-IV)

This diagnostic interview is a comprehensive tool designed to cover most of the common mental disorders of children and adolescents. Over 30 diagnoses can be assessed using DISC, both within the past year and the last 4 weeks. It is arranged into six diagnostic modules. These include:

Different formats can be used with children aged 6-17, with separate interviews for the parent/caretaker (DISC-P) and the child (DISC-Y).

The DISC is a highly structured tool, so that the questions are read exactly as written. This allows untrained persons to administer the questionnaire, which is written at a 9-year-old's reading level. Administration time varies depending on the number of diagnostic modules administered and the number of symptoms endorsed. For the entire DISC, the time average is 70 to 90 minutes.

For further information and ordering information, go to www.c-disc.com/t_disc.htm or e-mail at disc@worldnet.att.net.

Children's Report of Exposure to Violence (CREV)

CREV assesses children's exposure to violence in four ways, including media, reported (people's reports of occurrence), witnessed (directly), and victim (direct experience). It includes three categories of victims: self, strangers, and familiar persons.

The report contains 29 items and is self-administered to youth ages 9-18 years old. It is designed on the Likert scale and takes roughly 20 minutes to administer. For additional information, contact Dr. Michelle Cooley-Quille at John's Hopkins University at www.jhu.edu or e-mail at mcquille@jhsph.edu.

Coping Response Inventory, Youth Form

The Coping Response Inventory is used with adolescents to measure different types of coping responses to stressful life circumstances. The focus of coping (problem or emotion) and the method of coping (cognitive or behavioral) are covered. The problem (approach) focus of coping includes:

The emotion-focused approach (avoidance) includes:

This tool can be used with healthy youth and those with psychiatric, emotional, or behavioral problems. For more information, contact the Educational Testing Service, at (609) 734-5689 and reference TC017157.

For an extensive table of alcohol abuse assessment instruments, please go to the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Web site at: http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/instable.htm.

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