Children and Adolescent Social and Adaptive Function Scale (CASAFS)

Abstract

The Children and Adolescent Social and Adaptive Function Scale (CASAFS) is a 24-item self-report instrument developed by Price, Spence, and colleagues in 2002. Its primary objective is to provide a comprehensive and psychometrically sound measure of adaptive functioning and social skills among children and adolescents. The scale is designed to assess functional competence across four key life domains: School Performance, Peer Relationships, Family Relationships, and Home Duties.

The CASAFS offers a valuable index of functional competence, complementing measures of psychopathology by focusing on positive adjustment and daily living skills. It is widely used in clinical and research settings to monitor treatment progress, identify specific areas of functional impairment, and evaluate outcomes in youth mental health interventions.

Keywords

Children, Adolescents, Adaptive Functioning, Social Skills, Peer Relationships, Family Relationships, School Performance, Home Duties, Psychological Assessment, Clinical Measurement.

Authors

Price, C.S., Spence, S.H., Sheffield, J., Donovan, C.

Purpose

The fundamental purpose of the CASAFS is to quantify the level of competence and adjustment displayed by children and adolescents across significant ecological environments. It serves as an efficient tool for screening and assessing functional outcomes, particularly when evaluating the efficacy of psychological interventions targeting behavioral or emotional disorders.

The scale provides a positive index of functioning, measuring the individual’s ability to cope with daily demands and achieve independence appropriate for their age, rather than focusing solely on symptom severity. This balanced assessment approach is crucial for developing tailored treatment plans aimed at enhancing specific adaptive functioning domains, such as academic success or domestic responsibilities.

Construct

The CASAFS measures the overarching construct of Social and Adaptive Functioning, which encompasses the skills necessary for an individual to meet the demands of their environment, manage personal responsibilities, and maintain healthy relationships. This construct is operationalized through the measurement of four distinct, yet interrelated, domains:

• School Performance: Reflects academic success, effort, and behavioral adjustment within the educational setting.
• Peer Relationships: Measures the quality and quantity of social interactions, including the ability to form and maintain friendships and participate in social activities.
• Family Relationships: Assesses the quality of interaction, communication, and harmony within the immediate family unit.
• Home Duties: Evaluates responsibility, self-care behaviors, and contribution to household tasks.

Validity

The initial development of the CASAFS involved rigorous testing to establish its psychometric properties. Construct validity was supported by the clear factor structure aligning with theoretical expectations regarding adaptive behavior domains. This structural confirmation provides strong evidence that the scale measures the intended multifactorial construct of social and adaptive functioning.

Furthermore, convergent validity has been demonstrated through correlations with established measures of adjustment and competence, showing that the CASAFS effectively measures the intended construct. The scale exhibits high face validity, as the items directly relate to observable, everyday behaviors highly relevant to the functional demands placed upon children and adolescents in their daily lives.

Reliability

Reliability studies conducted during the scale’s development indicated strong internal consistency for the overall scale and its four subscales. High Psychometrics values (typically Cronbach’s alpha coefficients) suggest that the items within each domain consistently measure the same underlying trait, ensuring homogeneity within each subscale.

While specific test-retest reliability figures are necessary for complete assessment, the CASAFS is intended to possess adequate temporal stability, making it a reliable instrument for repeated measurements over time. This stability is essential when tracking clinical outcomes during longitudinal studies or therapeutic interventions aimed at improving adaptive skills.

Factor Analysis

The CASAFS structure was confirmed through factor analytic procedures (Price et al., 2002). This Factor Analysis revealed a robust four-factor model, perfectly corresponding to the four primary domains of adaptive functioning the authors hypothesized: School Performance, Peer Relationships, Family Relationships, and Home Duties. The clear segregation of factors supports the scale’s use in generating independent profile scores across these specific areas of competence.

The scale items load cleanly onto their respective factors, providing strong evidence for the distinct nature of each subscale. The factors are defined by the following item groupings: School performance (items 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21), Peer relationships (items 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22), Family relationships (items 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23), and Home duties (items 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24).

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report scale and rating instrument

Format: 24 items rated on a 4-point Likert Scale.

Language Available: English (Original)

Population Group: Clinical and non-clinical samples of youth

Age Group: Children and Adolescents (typically school-aged)

Population Details: Originally validated using a sample of Australian children and adolescents.

Test Methodology: Respondents rate the frequency of specific behaviors or achievements using the following scale: 1 = Never, 2 = Sometimes, 3 = Often, 4 = Always. Items 17, 18, 19, and 22 are reverse-scored to ensure that a higher total score reflects a higher degree of adaptive functioning and competence.

Keywords

Psychological Assessment, Self-Report, Competence, Children’s Mental Health, Clinical Measurement, Psychometrics, Factor Analysis, Youth Development.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not specified in source materials.

Affiliation Email addresses: Contact details generally available through the researchers’ academic institutional affiliations, such as Griffith University.

Correspondence Address: Correspondence generally directed to the School of Applied Psychometrics, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia (at the time of publication).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 2002

The CASAFS is often utilized in academic research and clinical practice. Researchers and clinicians should refer to the original publication or contact the authors/copyright holders (such as Griffith University) for current licensing agreements and usage fees. The scale is widely published in academic sourcebooks for clinical measures, indicating broad accessibility for professional use.

Reference’s

The original PDF can be downloaded here: https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/bitstream/handle/10072/28085/53818_1.pdf%3Bsequence=1

• Price, C.S., Spence, S.H., Sheffield, J., Donovan, C. (2002). The development and psychometric properties of a measure of social and adaptive functioning for children and adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 31(1):111-122.
• Price, C.S., Spence, S.H., Sheffield, J., Donovan, C. (2002). Children and Adolescent Social and Adaptive Function Scale (CASAFS). In Fischer, Joel., Corcoran, Kevin J. (2007). Measures for Clinical Practice and research: A sourcebook. (4th ed.). NY. Oxford University Pr. Vol. 1, Page (s): 464-466.

Items of the Children and Adolescent Social and Adaptive Function Scale (CASAFS)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

1. I get good marks in Maths/Arithmetic
2. I go out to places with my friends
3. I have a good relationship with my mother
4. I help around the house
5. I get good marks in Science
6. I have friends of the opposite sex
7. I have a good relationship with my father
8. I keep my room and belongings tidy
9. I get good marks in Social Science and/or History
10. I go to parties or school dances
11. I get on well with my brother(s)/sister(s) (if you have any)
12. I keep my clothes clean and tidy
13. I get good marks in reading/writing/English
14. I have at least one or two special friends
15. I get on well with my relatives
16. I shower and keep myself clean
17. I have trouble with my school work *
18. I spend most of my spare time alone *
19. I have fights with my parent(s) *
20. I help with the cooking at home
21. I am successful at my school work
22. I have difficulty making friends *
23. I have an adult who I can talk to if I have a
24. I help with the cleaning up after meals

* items were reverse scored