Psychometric properties and norms of the German ABC-Community and PAS-ADD Checklist.
German ABC-Community and PAS-ADD Checklist are reliable, stable tools for mental-health screening in intellectual disability.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Matson et al. (2011) tested two German forms. One was the ABC-Community. The other was the PAS-ADD Checklist. Both screen for mental-health problems in people with intellectual disability.
The team gave the forms to caregivers. They repeated the forms two years later. They checked if scores stayed steady and if the questions hung together.
What they found
The German forms passed every test. Internal consistency was excellent. Test-retest scores stayed moderate to strong after two years.
The tools now have local norms. Clinicians can compare a client’s score with German benchmarks.
How this fits with other research
Guest et al. (2013) did the same job for French. Their PAS-ADD Checklist also worked, but sensitivity dropped to 55 %. The German study did not report sensitivity, so the tools may miss some cases. The difference warns you to check local data before you trust any cutoff.
Matson et al. (2004) already showed the English ABC-C is valid for kids with ID. The German paper extends that work by adding adult norms and long-term stability.
Willemsen-Swinkels et al. (1998) validated the Mini PAS-ADD in English. The new German Checklist builds on that foundation. It keeps the same goal: let frontline staff flag psychiatric problems without a psychiatrist.
Why it matters
If you serve German-speaking clients, you now have free, normed screeners. Use the ABC-Community to track behavior problems. Use the PAS-ADD Checklist to spot possible depression, anxiety, or psychosis. Both forms stay stable for at least two years, so yearly re-screening is enough. No extra clinic time, no language barrier, no guesswork on cutoffs.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
AIM: The aim of the present study was to standardize and generate psychometric evidence of the German language versions of two well-established English language mental health instruments: the Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Community (ABC-C) and the Psychiatric Assessment Schedule for Adults with Developmental Disabilities (PAS-ADD) Checklist. New methods in this field were introduced: a simulation method for testing the factor structure and an exploration of long-term stability over two years. METHODS: The checklists were both administered to a representative sample of 270 individuals with intellectual disability (ID) and, two years later in a second data collection, to 128 participants of the original sample. Principal component analysis and parallel analysis were performed. Reliability measures, long-term stability, subscale intercorrelations, as well as standardized norms were generated. Prevalence of mental health problems was examined. RESULTS: Psychometric properties were mostly excellent, with long-term stability showing moderate to strong effects. The original factor structure of the ABC-C was replicated. PAS-ADD Checklist produced a similar, but still different structure compared with findings from the English language area. The overall prevalence rate of mental health problems in the sample was about 20%. CONCLUSION: Considering the good results on the measured psychometric properties, the two checklists are recommended for the early detection of mental health problems in persons with ID.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2011 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.07.017