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Type of Measure: The Baby Pediatric Symptom Checklist (BPSC) is a 12-item screening tool that is one component of the Survey of Well-being of Young Children (SWYC). It was developed by a team of experts who reviewed existing instruments/literature and created a tool that was in compliance with policy recommendations to identify social-emotional irregularities as early as possible. The BPSC is a brief screener that was specially designed for use in pediatric primary care settings.

Target Population: Children 0-18 months

Measurement properties and previous use: Sheldrick et al. (2013) assessed the psychometric properties of the BPSC, and report on the tool’s factor structure, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity. Results from an exploratory factor analysis indicated that 3-factor solution was an adequate fit for the data, suggesting three interpretable factors: irritability, inflexibility, and difficulty with routines. Cronbach’s alpha for each subscale in the first sample was acceptable (irritability = 0.75, inflexibility = 0.83, and difficulty with routines = 0.78). Cronbach’s alpha for each subscale in the replication sample was also acceptable, with the exception of irritability, which fell below 0.70 (irritability = 0.64, inflexibility = 0.80, and difficulty with routines = 0.74). Retest reliability was also adequate across subscales, with Pearson correlation estimates of 0.70 for “irritability,” 0.81 for “inflexibility,” and 0.78 for “difficulty with routines.”

Concurrent validity was assessed using three other instruments: the Ages & Stages Questionnaire: Social/Emotional (ASQ:SE), which is a screening instrument intended to reflect social-emotional status among children starting at 3 months of age; the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI/SF), which consists of three subscales (i.e. parental distress, dysfunctional interactions, and difficult child); and the 2-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2), which is a well-validated screening tool used to identify risk for depression among adults. The BPSC subscales correlated moderately to strongly with these measures, but the inflexibility subscale did not correlate with the ASQ:SE, and was only weakly correlated with the PSI’s Difficult Child Scale in the replication sample.

Languages: English, Spanish, Burmese, Nepali, and Portuguese (see Translations)

Authors and Citation: Sheldrick, R. C., Henson, B. S., Neger, E. N., Merchant, S., Murphy, J. M., & Perrin, E. C. (2013). The baby pediatric symptom checklist: development and initial validation of a new social/emotional screening instrument for very young children. Academic pediatrics, 13(1), 72-80.

Licence: The BPSC is freely available for use, per the Survey of Wellbeing of Children’s FAQ website. It cannot be modified without expressed permission of the authors. If you are interested in translating any component of the SWYC into a new language or administering it in a way for which the downloadable forms are not appropriate, please contact Kate Mattern at: theswyc@gmail.com.

Link to measure: Baby Pediatric Symptom Checklist (BPSC)

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