Sample Reports

APS Clinical Score Report DownloadSample APS PARiConnect Report Download

Contact PAA today to set up your PARiConnect online account to utilise online administration, scoring and reporting.

Author

William M. Reynolds, PhD

Description

The APS measures three broad disorder-problem domains: Clinical Disorders (20 scales), Personality Disorders (5 scales) and Psychosocial Problem Content areas (11 scales). The Response Style Indicator scales (4 scales) includes indices of response consistency, response veracity, and unusual endorsement propensities. Table 1 illustrates the relationship between APS scales and the internalising-externalising disorders.

The 346 APS items directly evaluate specific DSM-IV symptoms of psychiatric disorders found in adolescents.  The APS instrument also assesses other psychological problems and behaviours that interfere with the adolescent’s psychosocial adaptation and personal competence, including substance abuse, suicidal behaviour, emotional lability, excessive anger, aggression, alienation and introversion.  APS materials consist of the Administration and Interpretation Manual, the Psychometric and Technical Manual, the APS Scoring Program and User’s Guide and the Test Booklet.

The APS Administration and Interpretation Manual provides an overview of the development procedures and psychometric characteristics; normative information; detailed guidelines for administration, scoring, and interpretation; case illustrations, and clinical caveats.  The APS has high levels of reliability, validity, and clinical utility.   It provides a meaningful evaluation of a wide range of adolescent psychopathology. The APS Psychometric and Technical Manual provides detailed information on test development, psychometric characteristics and descriptions of the standardisation and clinical samples used in developing the instrument.  APS development samples are representative of geographic regions of the U.S.; they included 2,834 school-based adolescents and 506 adolescents in a variety of clinical settings.  Norms were developed for the total standardisation sample of 1,827 school-based adolescents and separately based on gender, age group and gender-by-age group.

Respondents complete the 346 items in the APS Test Booklet or online using the PAR iConnect platform.  APS items are written at a third-grade reading level.  The APS employs a unique multiple response format designed to conform to the nature of the specific DSM-IV symptom criteria.  APS scores represent the severity of disorder-specific symptomatology evaluated across different time periods.  This close match between APS item content and DSM-IV criteria facilitates clinical utility and ease of interpretation.  To quantify the primary dimensions of psychopathology captured by the APS, three broad-based Factor Score scales are calculated from the Clinical and Personality Disorder scales: Internalising Disorder, Externalising Disorder and Personality Disorder.

After paper-and-pencil administration the user enters the adolescent’s responses to the 346 items using the APS Scoring Program and selects the appropriate normative comparison group.  If the test is administered via PAR iConnect, reports are automatically generated and emailed to the account holder.  The software calculates scores for all scales and automatically generates a Clinical Score Report with the following information:

Use of the APS Clinical Score Report.
Summary of APS Scale Elevations.
APS Score Summary Table.
Profile of APS Clinical Scores (based on the selected normative comparison group).
Critical Items Summary Form.
Item Response Summary Table.

System Requirements 

PAR iConnect: Internet connection; Internet browser program

PC Softwrae: Windows XP/Vista/7/8 and 10 ;  CD-ROM drive for installation

Mac users: install Windows in VirtualBox or BootCamp

Other virtual machine solutions (e.g., Parallels, VMWare) are not supported.

CD-ROM drive for installation

NOTE:  The APS must be scored using the APS Scoring Program. For your convenience, the APS is now available on CD-ROM, enabling you to generate unlimited reports.   A 115-item short form (APS-SF™) is also available

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