Examining a Short Form of the Positive Family Support Strengths and Needs Assessment

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the parent-report short form of the Positive Family Support Strengths and Needs Assessment (PFS-SaNA). The PFS-SaNA is designed to reduce the time and burden of collaborative mental health screening. Parents of 245 students in the U.S. Northwest completed the screener at third, fourth, fifth, and seventh grade. The screener includes four items rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale. The screener demonstrated internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha ranging from 0.677 to 0.740 across waves. Furthermore, the screener demonstrated adequate concurrent and predictive validity with standard parent- and teacher-report mental health measurements. Lastly, receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to find optimal cut-off points for the screener at each grade. The screener shows adequate diagnostic accuracy against the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. The use of the PFS-SaNA Short Form may help improve family-school collaboration in assessment and intervention planning in schools.