Self-report screening is an important element of transcultural research. Problems concerning illiteracy, cultural sensitivity, and possible misunderstandings have been handled differently in different settings. The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity of two well-known instruments: the Hopkins Symptoms Check List (HSCL-25), and the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ, Part IV), with a sample of 160 unaccompanied asylum-seeking adolescents from Afghanistan and Somalia. Assessments were performed 4 months after arrival in Norway, and the screening instruments were presented to the informants on computers with touch-screen function, using the program MultiCASI. Sound-files in the native languages of the informants appeared simultaneously with the written items and could be repeated by touch. We found that the screening procedures were well received and understood by the informants regardless of reading and writing abilities. Agreement between diagnoses (CIDI) and screening results were similar to other studies. Computer-based assessment in this setting was practical, cost effective, and can be recommended. © 2017, © The Author(s) 2017.

Screening MultiCASI Adolescent Mental health Asylum-seekers Validity

Afghanistan depression receiver operating characteristic refugee anxiety disorder Norway predictive value human Refugees Minors Mental Disorders screening mental disease asylum seeker Humans psychology Adolescent male female reliability psychological rating scale reproducibility Psychiatric Status Rating Scales Harvard Trauma Questionnaire Reproducibility of Results diagnostic test accuracy study prevalence standards sensitivity and specificity Article feasibility study minor (person) major clinical study adult posttraumatic stress disorder criterion related validity Somalia Hopkins Symptoms Check List 25 mental disease assessment psychotrauma assessment Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted computer assisted diagnosis