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

Abstract

Behavioral problems in childhood have been associated with conduct problems later in life. Thus, it is essential 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 ESTERassessment.