title: Psychometric Evaluation of the Symptoms and Functioning Severity Scale (SFSS) Short Forms with Out-of-Home Care Youth.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is a need for brief progress monitoring measures of behavioral and emotional symptoms for youth in out-of-home care. The Symptoms and Functioning Severity Scale (SFSS; Bickman et al., 2010) is one measure that has clinician and youth short forms (SFSS-SFs); however, the psychometric soundness of the SFSS-SFs with youth in out-of-home care has yet to be examined.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective was to determine if the psychometric characteristics of the clinician and youth SFSS-SFs are viable for use in out-of-home care programs.
  
  
  METHODS
  The participants included 143 youth receiving residential treatment and 52 direct care residential staff. The current study assessed internal consistency and alternate forms reliability for SFSS-SFs for youth in a residential care setting. Further, a binary classification test was completed to determine if the SFSS-SFs similarly classified youth as the SFSS full version for low- and elevated-severity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The internal consistency for the clinician and youth SFSS-SFs was adequate (α = .75 to .82) as was the parallel forms reliability (r= .85 to .97). The sensitivity (0.80 to 0.95), specificity (0.88 to 0.97), and overall accuracy (0.89 to 0.93) for differentiating low and elevated symptom severity was acceptable.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The clinician and youth SFSS-SFs have acceptable psychometrics and may be beneficial for progress monitoring and additional research should clarify their potential for progress monitoring of youth in out-of-home programs.
authors.affiliation: University of Nebraska - Lincoln, 213 Barkley Memorial Center, Lincoln, NE 68583, 402-472-5484.
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Gross
authors.affiliation: University of Nebraska - Lincoln, 247E Barkley Memorial Center, Lincoln, NE 68583, 402-472-5501.
authors.forename: Kristin Duppong
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Hurley
authors.affiliation: University of Nebraska - Lincoln, 273 Barkley Memorial Center, Lincoln, NE 68583, 402-472-5487.
authors.forename: Matthew C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.affiliation: University of Nebraska - Lincoln, 202F Barkley Memorial Center, Lincoln, NE 68583, 402-472-5472.
authors.forename: Michael H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Epstein
authors.affiliation: National Research Institute at Father Flanagan's Boys' Home, 100 Crawford Drive, Boys Town, NE 68010.
authors.forename: Amy L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Stevens