Adaptation and validation of the personality assessment questionnaire on 12 year old children in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The objective of this study was to adapt and validate the child version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire with12-year-old Sinhala speaking school children in Sri Lanka. Content and consensual validity was determined by the Delphi Process. Criterion validity was determined by the degree of consensus between a clinical psychologist’s assessment and respondent’s total score on the instrument. Test-retest and internal consistency reliability were determined in two ways - a large group administration and a small group administration. The instrument showed satisfactory content and consensual validity. The cut-off score for the Sinhala version of the Child PAQ was determined as 89, at a sensitivity of 71.1% and specificity of 69.4% (95% confidence interval). The validated version’s full scale test-retest and internal consistency reliability were satisfactory. The instrument is best administered in small rather than in large groups of respondents.