Reliability and validity of the Screening Tool for Assessment of Psychosocial Problems

Background: While working in a multidisciplinary team, many a time there is lack of clarity or connivance who will work on what issue and how to decide about a referral to another team member, particularly to the psychiatric social worker. So, a need was felt to develop a screening tool for the same purpose. Aim: To develop a screening tool for the assessment of psychosocial problems, and to test its reliability and validity. Methods: A 12-item scale was developed following the scientific tool development steps. Content validity of the tool was established by accepting more than 70% validity index for each item. To test the reliability, it was applied to 100 family members of persons with mental illness. Results: Statistical analyses showed good internal consistency by Cronbach's alpha (r=0.76) and Spearman-Brown prophecy formula (r=0.73). Scores of all the 12 individual items significantly correlated with the total score of the tool indicating acceptable sensitivity. A significant correlation was found among the scores of items indicating good construct validity of the tool. Conclusion: The Screening Tool for Assessment of Psychosocial Problems (STAPP) is a brief and simple to use instrument, which has acceptable psychometric properties (valid and reliable). It is suitable for screening of the psychosocial problems of family members of person with a mental illness. It can be used for screening in routine clinical practice.