Adolescent Delinquency and Psychopathology: Is Maysi-2 a Valid Instrument to Assess Psychopathology Risk among Turkish Adolescents?

Introduction: In this study it was aimed to study validity and reliability of Turkish form of Massachusetts outh Screening Instrument-Second Version (MAYSI-2). Method and materials: Totally 387 adolescents, 333 boys and 54 girls participated to the study. Calculation of each subscale’s Cronbach’s alpha and inter subscales correlation coefficiency has been performed to assess reliability of Turkish form of MAYSI-2. Explanatory factor analysis and Turkish form of Youth Self Report (YSR) have been used to assess validity of the scale. Results: Cronbach’s alpha coefficiency values were 0.84 for Alcohol/Drug Use, 0.78 for Anger/Irritability, 0.66 for Depression/Anxiety, 0.58 for Somatic Complaints, 0.84 for Suicidal Ideation, 0,15 for Thought Disturbance, 0.55 for Traumatic Experiences for boys and 0.66 for Traumatic Experiences for girls. Turkish form of MAYSI-2 consisted of seven factor structure as the original one in explanatory factor analysis. Statistically significant correlation coefficiencies which range between 0.27 and 0.69 were found in between all the subscales of both Turkish form of MAYSI-2 and Turkish YSR. Conclusion: Results of this study showed that Turkish form of MAYSI-2 is valid and reliable to perform risk assessment with regard to psychiatric disorders among Turkish youth population who entered to the juvenile justice system.