The Children's Somatization Inventory: further evidence for its reliability and validity in a pediatric and a community sample of Dutch children and adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the psychometric properties of the Children's Somatization Inventory (CSI) in the Netherlands.


METHODS
The CSI and a number of personality and psychopathology questionnaires were administered to Dutch schoolchildren (N = 479), children referred to a pediatric clinic (N = 63), and children's parents.


RESULTS
Factor analysis yielded a number of factors that have also been found in previous research, viz., pain/weakness, gastrointestinal symptoms, and pseudoneurological symptoms. The reliability (internal consistency) of the CSI was satisfactory. Furthermore, support was obtained for the validity of the CSI. More specifically, the scale correlated in a theoretically meaningful way with child and parent reports of personality and psychopathology, and discriminated well between healthy and pediatric children. Finally, highly similar psychometric properties were obtained for the Parent version of the CSI (i.e., PCSI).


CONCLUSIONS
The Dutch version of the CSI seems to be a reliable and valid self-report measure for assessing somatization symptoms in children and adolescents.
Meesters
Cor
C
Department of Medical, Clinical, and Experimental Psychology, Maastricht University, The Netherlands. c.meesters@dep.unimaas.nl
Muris
Peter
P
Ghys
Alex
A
Reumerman
Thirza
T
Rooijmans
Marleen
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology