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Abstract
Background: An increasing need exists for suitable measures to evaluate treatment outcome in adolescents. YP-CORE is a pan-theoretical brief questionnaire developed for this purpose, but it lacks studies in different cultures or languages.
Aims: To explore the acceptability, factor structure, reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change of the Finnish translation of YP-CORE.
Methods: The study was conducted at the Department of Adolescent Psychiatry, Helsinki University Central Hospital. A Finnish translation was prepared by a team of professionals and adolescents. A clinical sample of 104 patients was asked to complete the form together with BDI-21 and BAI, and 92 of them filled the forms again after a 3-month treatment. Analysis included acceptability, confirmatory factor analysis, internal and test–re-test reliability, concurrent validity, influence of gender and age, and criteria for reliable change.
Results: YP-CORE was well accepted, and the rate of missing values was low. Internal consistency (α = 0.83–.92) and test–re-test reliability were good (r = 0.69), and the results of CFA supported a one-factor model. YP-CORE showed good concurrent validity against two widely used symptom-specific measures (r = 0.62–0.87). Gender had a moderately strong effect on the scores (d = 0.67), but the effect of age was not as evident. The measure was sensitive to change, showing a larger effect size (d = 0.55) than in the BDI-21 and BAI (d = 0.31–0.50).
Conclusions: The results show that the translation of YP-CORE into Finnish has been successful, the YP-CORE has good psychometric properties, and the measure could be taken into wider use in clinical settings for outcome measurement in adolescents.
Acknowledgements
We thank the Helsinki University Central Hospital Department of Psychiatry and the Finnish Psychiatry Association for supporting the research.
Disclosure statement
Chris Evans previously received funding from the Mental Health Foundation for the development of the CORE-OM and is a Trustee of the CORE System Trust, which holds the copyright for the YP-CORE but derives no income from that as the instruments are free to reproduce. The other authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.