Abstract
Mental health outcome measures are being increasingly used to monitor the efficacy of interventions put in place to support children. For Looked After Children (LAC), mental health outcome measures are of further importance for placement planning. It is important that the measures used for these purposes are psychometrically robust. Literature Review: The psychometric properties of 25 informant rated mental health outcome measures for young people were systematically reviewed. A novel quality appraisal tool was developed to evaluate evidence pertaining to internal consistency, test-retest and interrater reliability (IRR), construct validity and responsiveness. No measure provided evidence of acceptable rigour in all assessed domains. Generally, this was a result of an absence of evidence. A need for further research pertaining to the psychometric properties of these measures, particularly with respect to their responsiveness to change, test-retest and inter-rater reliability was identified. Research Report: This study aimed to explore the psychometric properties of the BERRI in its current form for use with LAC in residential care and to explore whether these properties might be enhanced through the extraction of factors. Evidence of good internal consistency and construct validity was found for all original scales. Inter-rater reliability was 'poormoderate' for three of the five scales and 'moderate-good' for the remaining two and the BERRI total score. An exploration of the structure of the BERRI using principal components analysis revealed a five component structure. The psychometric properties of the BERRI were not improved through the empirical extraction of components. Suggestions were made with regards to the item content of the BERRI. Consideration was given to the clinical implications arising from the exploration of the measure's IRR and subsequently how IRR might be improved. Overall, the BERRI was felt to show promise as a targeted outcome measure for use with LAC in residential care.