Screening of psychopathology with juvenile deviants

: The aim of this article is to describe the psychometric properties of the German version of the BARO (Basis Raads Onderzoek/ Basic Council Examination), a mental health screening instrument for delinquent adolescents which are referred to juvenile court. The BARO was developed in 1999 by Theo Doreleijers in the Netherlands. The present article reports on a validation study concerning the German BARO. For this study, a sample of 125 Swiss German speaking youth, referred to forensic investigation for having committed an offence, was used. For purposes of validation, besides the BARO, the DIPS (Diagnostic interview for psychiatric disorders) and the SKID II (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders) were conducted. A specifically for this goal created questionnaire was filled out by the users, in order to judge the applicability of the BARO. With respect to reliability, both internal consistency, and interrater reliability ranged from good to very good (α = .80 and r= .84). For analysing the validity, a ROC estimation (receiver operator curve) was performed and showed an AUC (area under the curve) of .88 for the presence of a mental health disorder. This result can be considered as very good. An optimal cut-off-point of 16.5 corresponds with a sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 84%. The applicability of the BARO was rated as satisfying by the mental health professionals who used the instruments. The good psychometric properties and discriminative power of the BARO indicates that it is a useful mental health screening instrument for youth in contact with juvenile justice. Further research should focus on the usefulness in other populations and on the predictive validity for long-term outcome.