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Original ArticleOpen Access
The Effectiveness of Brief Psychosocial Screening in Identifying Behavioral Problems in Children
Plubrukarn R 
,
Amloy K ,
Kanjanapatanakul W
,
Amloy K ,
Kanjanapatanakul W Background: Using screening tools to enhance early detection of psychosocial problems can lead to timely intervention and
appropriate referral to general practices.
Objective: To assess whether the Thai version of Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) is suitable for screening of psychosocial
dysfunction.
Material and Method: A cross sectional study was conducted among 160 children aged 6-11 years seeking care at Queen
Sirikit National Institute of Child Health from November 2006 to December 2007. Parents were asked to complete the Thai
version of the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) questionnaire and the Thai Youth Behavior Checklist (TYC). Sensitivity,
specificity, positive and negative predictive value were analyzed and reported.
Results: The area under the receiver operation characteristic (ROC) curve, using the TYC as a gold standard, was 0.895.
The cut-off score of 16 was appropriate for early detection of the psychosocial dysfunction. At this cut-off score, the
sensitivity was 83.51%, the specificity was 79.37%, the positive predictive value was 86.17% and the negative predictive
value for detecting psychosocial dysfunction among children was 75.76%.
Conclusion: The authors’ findings suggested that the Thai version, parent completed, PSC may be a useful psychosocial
screening tool for the children aged 6-11 years with the recommended cut-off score of 16.
Keywords: Brief psychosocial screening, Thai version pediatric symptom checklist (PSC), Behavioral problems in children,
Psychosocial dysfunction
appropriate referral to general practices.
Objective: To assess whether the Thai version of Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) is suitable for screening of psychosocial
dysfunction.
Material and Method: A cross sectional study was conducted among 160 children aged 6-11 years seeking care at Queen
Sirikit National Institute of Child Health from November 2006 to December 2007. Parents were asked to complete the Thai
version of the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) questionnaire and the Thai Youth Behavior Checklist (TYC). Sensitivity,
specificity, positive and negative predictive value were analyzed and reported.
Results: The area under the receiver operation characteristic (ROC) curve, using the TYC as a gold standard, was 0.895.
The cut-off score of 16 was appropriate for early detection of the psychosocial dysfunction. At this cut-off score, the
sensitivity was 83.51%, the specificity was 79.37%, the positive predictive value was 86.17% and the negative predictive
value for detecting psychosocial dysfunction among children was 75.76%.
Conclusion: The authors’ findings suggested that the Thai version, parent completed, PSC may be a useful psychosocial
screening tool for the children aged 6-11 years with the recommended cut-off score of 16.
Keywords: Brief psychosocial screening, Thai version pediatric symptom checklist (PSC), Behavioral problems in children,
Psychosocial dysfunction
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