Screening for internalizing disorders in college students: Exploration of predictive utility of the Behavior Assessment System for Children, Third Edition (BASC-3) college self-report form
Open Access
Author:
Zanko, Amanda
Graduate Program:
School Psychology
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
October 11, 2022
Committee Members:
James Diperna, Program Head/Chair Cynthia Huang-Pollock, Outside Unit & Field Member Shirley Woika, Major Field Member James Diperna, Chair & Dissertation Advisor Jennifer Frank, Major Field Member
Keywords:
Anxiety assessment BASC-3 clinical utility college students depression measurement psychometrics self-report validity
Abstract:
Although numerous studies have focused on understanding the utility of the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2015) across multiple populations, many of the studies that focus on the use of this measure with the college population have used the previous edition (BASC-2). Given the rising rates of anxiety and depression in the college population (Center for Collegiate Mental Health [CCMH], 2020) and the resulting increased risk for negative outcomes such as academic failure, dropout, self-harm, and suicidality (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013; Bakken, 2021; BlackDeer, 2021), ordinal and binomial logistic regression analyses were used to examine the BASC-3 College Self-Report form (SRP-COL) in predicting mental health and academic outcomes for a sample of full-time college students (N = 136) enrolled in a large university. The Internalizing Problems Composite, specifically the Anxiety subscale, significantly predicted self-reported diagnosis of anxiety and/or depression; however, gender and age were the only statistically significant predictors of college GPA. Practical implications regarding the use of the BASC-3 SRP COL in predicting academic and mental health outcomes for college students, as well as limitations and directions for future research, also are discussed.
