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Further Testing of the Inter-rater Reliability of ESTER-assessment – a Risk-need Assessment Instrument for Youths with or at Risk for Conduct Problems

Published: 10 March 2013
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Abstract

Behavioral problems in childhood have been associated with conduct problems later in life. Thus, it is essen-tial that youths with or at risk for conduct problems receive the help they need on time. Therefore, youth with or at risk for conduct problem must receive effective risk-need assessments and intervention plans regardless the person who conducts the assessment. ESTER-assessment is a structured, computer-aided, risk-need instrument developed for assessing youth (0-18) with or at risk for conduct problems. It uses a five-step response scale to assess 19 research-based risk and protective factors and the present study tests the inter-rater reliability of these 19 factors. This was done by comparing the assessments conducted by two independent raters who assessed the file information of 30 girls (mean age = 16.9) who had been incarcerated due to psychosocial problems, criminality and/or drug abuse. Results showed fair to good agreement for the majority of the factors via intra-class correlations and percentage agreement varied on the 19 factors from 24.1 to 80.8 % for exact agreement and from 72.2 to 96.7 % for exact agreement or difference by one step on the response scale. We conclude that it is possible to gain acceptable to excellent inter-rater reliability in assessing risk and protective factors via ESTER-assessment.

Published in American Journal of Applied Psychology (Volume 2, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajap.20130202.11
Page(s) 16-21
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2013. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Risk-Need Assessment, Conduct Problems, Antisocial Behavior, Youth, Inter-Rater Reliability

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Henrique Bond, Marja Rudenhed, Eva Bergquist, Anna-Karin Andershed, Henrik Andershed. (2013). Further Testing of the Inter-rater Reliability of ESTER-assessment – a Risk-need Assessment Instrument for Youths with or at Risk for Conduct Problems. American Journal of Applied Psychology, 2(2), 16-21. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajap.20130202.11

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    ACS Style

    Henrique Bond; Marja Rudenhed; Eva Bergquist; Anna-Karin Andershed; Henrik Andershed. Further Testing of the Inter-rater Reliability of ESTER-assessment – a Risk-need Assessment Instrument for Youths with or at Risk for Conduct Problems. Am. J. Appl. Psychol. 2013, 2(2), 16-21. doi: 10.11648/j.ajap.20130202.11

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    AMA Style

    Henrique Bond, Marja Rudenhed, Eva Bergquist, Anna-Karin Andershed, Henrik Andershed. Further Testing of the Inter-rater Reliability of ESTER-assessment – a Risk-need Assessment Instrument for Youths with or at Risk for Conduct Problems. Am J Appl Psychol. 2013;2(2):16-21. doi: 10.11648/j.ajap.20130202.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajap.20130202.11,
      author = {Henrique Bond and Marja Rudenhed and Eva Bergquist and Anna-Karin Andershed and Henrik Andershed},
      title = {Further Testing of the Inter-rater Reliability of ESTER-assessment – a Risk-need Assessment Instrument for Youths with or at Risk for Conduct Problems},
      journal = {American Journal of Applied Psychology},
      volume = {2},
      number = {2},
      pages = {16-21},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajap.20130202.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajap.20130202.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajap.20130202.11},
      abstract = {Behavioral problems in childhood have been associated with conduct problems later in life. Thus, it is essen-tial that youths with or at risk for conduct problems receive the help they need on time. Therefore, youth with or at risk for conduct problem must receive effective risk-need assessments and intervention plans regardless the person who conducts the assessment. ESTER-assessment is a structured, computer-aided, risk-need instrument developed for assessing youth (0-18) with or at risk for conduct problems. It uses a five-step response scale to assess 19 research-based risk and protective factors and the present study tests the inter-rater reliability of these 19 factors. This was done by comparing the assessments conducted by two independent raters who assessed the file information of 30 girls (mean age = 16.9) who had been incarcerated due to psychosocial problems, criminality and/or drug abuse. Results showed fair to good agreement for the majority of the factors via intra-class correlations and percentage agreement varied on the 19 factors from 24.1 to 80.8 % for exact agreement and from 72.2 to 96.7 % for exact agreement or difference by one step on the response scale. We conclude that it is possible to gain acceptable to excellent inter-rater reliability in assessing risk and protective factors via ESTER-assessment.},
     year = {2013}
    }
    

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    AU  - Henrique Bond
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    AB  - Behavioral problems in childhood have been associated with conduct problems later in life. Thus, it is essen-tial that youths with or at risk for conduct problems receive the help they need on time. Therefore, youth with or at risk for conduct problem must receive effective risk-need assessments and intervention plans regardless the person who conducts the assessment. ESTER-assessment is a structured, computer-aided, risk-need instrument developed for assessing youth (0-18) with or at risk for conduct problems. It uses a five-step response scale to assess 19 research-based risk and protective factors and the present study tests the inter-rater reliability of these 19 factors. This was done by comparing the assessments conducted by two independent raters who assessed the file information of 30 girls (mean age = 16.9) who had been incarcerated due to psychosocial problems, criminality and/or drug abuse. Results showed fair to good agreement for the majority of the factors via intra-class correlations and percentage agreement varied on the 19 factors from 24.1 to 80.8 % for exact agreement and from 72.2 to 96.7 % for exact agreement or difference by one step on the response scale. We conclude that it is possible to gain acceptable to excellent inter-rater reliability in assessing risk and protective factors via ESTER-assessment.
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Author Information
  • School of Law, Psychology, and Social Work, ?rebro University, SE-701 82, Sweden

  • School of Law, Psychology, and Social Work, ?rebro University, SE-701 82, Sweden

  • School of Law, Psychology, and Social Work, ?rebro University, SE-701 82, Sweden

  • School of Law, Psychology, and Social Work, ?rebro University, SE-701 82, Sweden

  • School of Law, Psychology, and Social Work, ?rebro University, SE-701 82, Sweden

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