The APS empirically assesses the severity of symptoms associated with specific DSM-IV™ clinical and personality disorders.

Features and benefits

• A multidimensional self-report instrument.
• Also assesses other psychological problems and behaviors that may interfere with an adolescent’s psychological adaptation and personal competence, including substance abuse, suicidal behavior, emotional lability, excessive anger, aggression, alienation, and introversion.
• APS scores represent the severity of disorder-specific symptomatology evaluated across different time periods. This close match between APS item content and DSM-IV criteria enhances clinical utility and facilitates ease of interpretation.

Test structure

• Measures three broad disorder-problem domains: Clinical Disorders (20 scales), Personality Disorders (five scales), and Psychosocial Problem Content areas (11 scales). The Response Style Indicator scales (four scales) include indexes of response consistency and infrequency, response veracity, and unusual endorsement propensities.
• Must be scored using either PARiConnect or the APS Scoring Program. The APS Scoring Program software calculates scores for all scales and automatically generates a Clinical Score Report. The report includes a summary of APS scale elevations, a score summary table, a profile, a critical items summary form, and an item response summary table.

Short form also available

The 115-item APS-SF (Qualification Level B) is a multidimensional measure of psychopathology and personality derived from the APS.

• Ideal for use when time and circumstance necessitate a brief measure of psychopathology.
• Addresses issues regarding school safety by assessing excessive anger and propensity for violence toward others.
• Consists of 12 clinical scales and two validity scales. Six of the clinical scales focus on DSM-IV™ symptomatology associated with the following disorders: conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and substance abuse disorder.
• The remaining six clinical scales are not anchored to specific DSM-IV disorders and symptoms but evaluate the related and important areas of eating disturbance, suicide, academic problems, anger/violence proneness, self-concept, and interpersonal problems.
• Must be scored using either PARiConnect or the APS-SF Scoring Program. In less than 5 minutes, the APS-SF Scoring Program calculates T scores for each scale and generates the APS-SF Clinical Score Report, which includes critical item endorsements.