The DADYS-Screen: Development and Evaluation of a Screening Tool for Affective Dysregulation in Children
Christiane Otto, Anne Kaman, Claus Barkmann, Manfred Döpfner, Anja Görtz‐Dorten, Claudia Ginsberg, Sara Zaplana Labarga, Anne‐Katrin Treier, Veit Roessner, Charlotte Hanisch, Michael Koelch, Tobias Banaschewski, Ulrike Ravens‐Sieberer
Abstract
Affective dysregulation (AD) in children is characterized by persistent irritability and severe temper outbursts. This study developed and evaluated a screening questionnaire for AD in children. The development included the generation of an initial item pool from existing instruments, a Delphi rating of experts, focus groups with experts and parents, and psychometric analyses of clinical and population-based samples. Based on data of a large community-based study, the final screening questionnaire was developed ( n = 771; 49.7 % female; age M = 10.02 years; SD = 1.34) and evaluated ( n = 8,974; 48.7 % female; age M = 10.00 years; SD = 1.38) with methods from classical test theory and item response theory. The developed DADYS-Screen ( D iagnostic Tool for A ffective Dys regulation in Children— Screen ing Questionnaire) includes 12 items with good psychometric properties and scale characteristics including a good fit to a one-factorial model in comparison to the baseline model, although only a “mediocre” fit according to the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). Results could be confirmed using a second and larger data set. Overall, the DADYS-Screen is able to identify children with AD, although it needs further investigation using clinical data.