Children at primary school age are already able to provide information about their level of trait-anxiety. The self-report is an important source of information for anxieties which are not recognizable on behavioral level. However, there is a lack of instruments available in the German language in order to be able to assess heightened primary school aged children’s anxiety levels so far. This study aims to examine the test quality of the “Anxiety Screening for Kids (ASK)”. In order to define reference values and psychometric properties for the ASK 894, primary school children from northern Germany were tested, some of them repeatedly. Different quantitative methods as well as qualitative methods were applied to examine the validity of the test. Overall, the results verify the high test quality of the ASK. The given objectivity as well as satisfying up to good reliabilities and a satisfactory up to good retest reliability are to be highlighted. Furthermore, good discriminant and convergent validity as well as differential validity are given. The sensitivity to change has also been confirmed. The results characterize the ASK as an objective, reliable and valid test for measuring self-reported anxiety of primary school children.

Alexithymia is defined as a set of cognitive-emotional deficits such as the inability to identify or express emotion and affect, as well as avoidance in coping with conflicts or articulating emotions. Due to poor affective communication, individuals with alexithymia may lack the skills to seek support from individuals around them. The first aim of this study was to validate a measurement scale (based on TAS-20 by Bagby, Parker & Taylor 1994) in order to evaluate Finnish adolescents (n =393) with alexithymia. Secondly, we aimed to study the interrelations between the adolescents' alexithymia and psychosocial ill-being (social and emotional loneliness, social anxiety, social phobia, and depression). This study was a part of a longitudinal research project focusing on the socio-emotinal well-being of Finnish school students in lower secondary school. Data was based on the self evaluations from the grades 7-9 (ages 13-15). Analyses were conducted mostly using structural equation modeling. Based on validity analyses a three-factor model (Difficulty Describing Feelings, Difficulty Identifying Feeling, Externally-Oriented Thinking) of adolescents with alexithymia was confirmed. Results showed that alexithymia was significantly interrelated with the psychosocial ill-being: alexithymic adolescents suffered more from loneliness, anxiety, social phobia, and depression, compared with the non-alexithymic subjects. Gender differences were not significant.

Depression is a mental illness that is prevailed in every society of the world regardless of gender, socioeconomic status, and age of habitants. There are lots of scales developed to measure the level of depression among community and clinical samples. One of newly developed measures of depression is Asian Adolescent Depression Scale (AADS; Woo, 2004) that is especially developed to measure level of depression among Asian adolescents. The Present study was designed to translated/adapt the English AADS into Urdu (National Language of Pakistan) by following back translation method. The Urdu translated version of AADS was applied with 292 adolescents in Karachi, Pakistan. The age range of participants was 13-16 (M=14.4) years. Analysis of internal consistency by Cronbach’s alpha α = .86 provided a good evidence of AADS reliability. The positive correlation of AADS was found with Depression (r=.36), Anxiety (r=.31), and Stress (r=.34) subscales of DASS-21, and negative relationship was found with MSPSS (r= -.35). The correlation (r=.77) between original and Urdu translation of the AADS is also strong. Results indicated that Urdu AADS can be confidently utilized with community samples of Pakistani adolescents.

The development of behavior rating scales specifically intended to assess preschoolers’ social-emotional behaviors has been a concern in the field of psychological assessment for quite some time. This study aims to analyze the correlations between scores on the Portuguese version of the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales – 2nd Edition (PKBS-2) and on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-Por). The sample was composed of preschool children (n=80; 40 males, 40 femalles) assessed with both rating scales, by parents and teachers. As expected, all the PKBS-2 Social Skills scores had negative correlations with the SDQ-Por problem scores, and all the PKBS-2 Problem Behaviors scores had positive correlations with the SDQ-Por problem scores. Correlations with the SDQ-Por Prosocial Behavior score were in the opposite direction. The correlation for Problem Behaviors total scores was of .53 and .73 for parents and teachers, respectively (p˂.01). The strongest correlation was found between the PKBS-2 Opposition/Explosive subscale and the SDQ-Por Conduct Problems (r=.65, parents' ratings) and between the PKBS-2 Overactivity/Inattention subscale and the SDQ-Por Hyperactivity/Inattention (r=.79, teachers' ratings). Results confrim the constructs assessed by both instruments, reinforcing utility of the Portuguese version of the PKBS-2 as a valid tool available to assess social-emotional behaviors at preschool age.