NOTE: The user manual and technical report cost $125, MAYSIWARE (for electronic administration) costs $279.95.
The MAYSI-2 is a 15-minutes self-report screening tool designed specifically for use in juvenile detention centers. The measure was designed to be administered by detention center staff with minimal training within 2 days of a youth's admission to the facility. There are 5 subscales that have been validated for both boys and girls: Alcohol/Drug Use, Anger-Irritability, Depression-Anxiety, Somatic Complaints, and Suicide Ideation, and a sixth scale, Thought Disturbance, validated only for boys. A seventh scale, Traumatic Experiences, measures lifetime trauma exposure and posttraumatic reactions and contains slightly different items for girls and boys.
Overview
MAYSI-2
Grisso, T., & Barnum, R. (2000). Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-2 (MAYSI-2): User's manual and technical report. Worchester, MA: University of Massachusetts Medical School.
The measure, manuals, and training can be requested at the following website: http://nysap.us/NYSAPTARequestForm.html
Additional questions can be directed to National Youth Screening and Assessment Project, nysap@umassmed.edu, University of Massachusets Medical School, Psychiatry Department, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA 01655.
Administration
Yes/No
| Scales | |
|---|---|
| Sample Items | |
| Alcohol/Drug Use (8 items) | Have you used alcohol or drugs to help you feel better? |
| Angry-Irritable (9 items) | Have you lost your temper easily, or had a "short fuse"? |
| Depressesd-Anxious (9 items) | Have nervous or worried feelings kept you from doing things you want to do? |
| Somatic Complaints (6 items) | Have you had bad headaches? |
| Suicide Ideation (5 items) | Have you felt like killing yourself? |
| Thought Disturbance (boys only, 5 items) | Have you seen things that other people say are not really there? |
| Traumatic Experiences (differs by gender, 5 items) | Have you ever seen someone severely injured or killed (in person- not in movies or on TV)? |
Training
Parallel or Alternate Forms
Psychometrics
The measure was normed on a national sample of youth detained in juvenile justice facilities in 19 states.
The measure provides cutoffs for "Caution" (indicating "possible clinical significance") and "Warning" (indicating that "the youth has scored exceptionally high in comparison to other youths in the juvenile justice system). The caution cutoff scores are 4 (Alcohol/Drug use), 5 (Angry/Irritable), 3 (Depressed-Anxious), 3 (Somatic Complaints), 2 (Suicidal Ideation), and 1 (Thought Disturbance, boys only). The warning cutoffs are 7 (Alcohol/Drug use), 8 (Angry-Irritable), 6 (Depressed-Anxious), 6 (Somatic Complaints), 3 (Suicide Ideation), 2 (Thought Disturbance, boys only). NOTE: No cut-off scores have been established for the Traumatic Experiences scale, although information regarding the sensitivity and specificity of possible cut-off scores is presented in Kerig et al. (2011).
| Type: | Rating | Statistics | Min | Max | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test-Retest (boys) | Intraclass Correlation Coefficient | 0.53 | 0.89 | 0.74 | |
| Test-Retest (girls) | Intraclass Correlation Coefficient | 0.66 | 0.85 | 0.74 | |
| Internal Consistency | Alpha | 0.55 (Thought Disturbance, boys only) | 0.87 (Somatic Complaints) | 0.77 | |
| Parallel/Alternate Forms |
NOTE: The MAYSI-2 is intended to assess the youth's current functioning at the time of intake into a facility, and is thus not expected to demonstrate reliability across periods of time. Per the MAYSI-2 manual, girls' scores were not significantly different across administrations. For boys, lower scores on Depressed-Anxious, Somatic Complaints, and Thought Disturbance were seen on the second administration. The authors suggest that this difference may be due to a practice effect or to adjustment over time to the detention center environment, and that it is consistent with other measures of youth psychopathology. Archer et al. (2004) retested youth an average of 15 days later and reported correlations between .60 and .82. Cauffman (2004) retested youth after an interval of an average of 111 days and reported reliability correlations ranging from .27 and .70. NOTE: For the Traumatic Experiences scale specifically, alphas range from .60 to .81 with an average .71. See Cauffman and MacIntosh (2006) for an examination of internal consistency and factor structure by race and ethnicity and Ford et al. (2008) for an examination of gender differences. Content Validity Evaluated:
Per the MAYSI-2 manual, the subscales of Depressed-Anxious are correlated significantly with Angry-Irritable (r=.61 for girls, .57 for boys), consistent with clinical observations and empirical evidence, and Depressed-Anxious also correlates significantly with Suicide Ideation (r=.53 for girls, .54 for boys), as would be expected.
Construct Validity Evaluated:
| Validity Type | Not known | Not found | Nonclincal Samples* | Clinical Samples | Diverse Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convergent/Concurrent | x | x | |||
| Discriminant | x | x | |||
| Sensitive to Change | x | ||||
| Intervention Effects | x | ||||
| Longitudinal/Maturation Effects | x | ||||
| Sensitive to Theoretically Distinct Groups | x | x | |||
| Factorial Validity | x | x |
* = This measure was designed for youth in juvenile justice settings. Although not a clinical population per se, this is also a group that is distinct from the normative population, in particular because of their high rates of mental health problems, trauma exposure, and posttraumatic stress symptoms.
| Not Known | Not Found | Nonclinical Samples | Clinical Samples | Diverse Samples | Not applicable | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Predictive Validity: | x | |||||
| Postdictive Validity: | x |
The Thought Disturbance scale has validity established only for boys. Other than the Kerig et al. (2011) study, the Traumatic Experiences scale has not been validated.
Translations
| Language: | Translated | Back Translated | Reliable | Good Psychometric Properties | Factor Structure | Norms Available | Measure Developed for this Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Arabic | x | x | |||||
| 2. Dutch (Netherlands) | x | x | x (in progress) | x (in progress) | |||
| 3. Flemish | x | x | |||||
| 4. French (Canada, France, Switzerland) | x | x | x (Swiss version norming in process) | ||||
| 5. German | x | x | |||||
| 6. Greek | x | x | |||||
| 7. Italian | x | x | |||||
| 8. Korean | x | x | |||||
| 9. Norwegian | x | x | |||||
| 10. Portuguese | x | x | |||||
| 11. Russian | x | x | |||||
| 12. Spanish (Spain, Catalan, U.S.) | x | x | |||||
| 13. Swedish | x | x | |||||
| 14. Turkish | x | x | |||||
| 15. Vietnamese | x | x |
Population Information
This measure was developed for use with youth detained in juvenile justice settings.
Pros & Cons/References
1. Brief
2. Can be administered by detention center staff without much special training
3. Yes/no answer format is easy for youth
4. Reading level is accessible for youth
5. Warning and caution cutoffs are easy to interpret
1. Traumatic Experiences scale has not been validated and does not have cut-off scores established
2. Research to date indicates only modest sensitivity and specificity for the Traumatic Experiences scale in screening youth who meet criteria for PTSD
3. Thought Disturbance scale not valid for use with girls
Archer, R.P., Stredny, R.V., Mason, J.A., & Arnau, R.C. (2004). An examination and replication of the psychometric properties of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Second Edition (MAYSI-2) among adolescents in detention settings. Assessment, 11, 290-302.
Butler, M., Loney, B., & Kistner, J. (2007). The Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument as a predictor of institutional maladjustment in severe male juvenile offenders. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 34, 476-492.
Caldwell, R., Sturges, S., & Silver, N. (2006). Home versus school environments and their influences on the affective and behavioral states of African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian juvenile offenders. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 16, 125-138.
Cauffman, E. (2004). A statewide screening of mental health symptoms among juvenile offenders in detention. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 43, 430-439.
Cauffman, E., & MacIntosh, R. (2006). A Rasch differential item functioning analysis of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument. Educational and Psychological Management, 66i, 502-521.
Cruise, K. R., Dandreaux, D. M., Marsee, M. A., & DePrato, D. K. (2008). Identification of critical items on the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-2 (MAYSI-2) in incarcerated youth. International Journal of Forensic Mental Health, 7, 121-132.
Ford, J., Chapman, J. F., Pearson, G., Borum, R., & Wolpaw, J. M. (2008). Psychometric status and clinical utility of the MAYSI-2 with girls and boys in juvenile detention. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 30, 87-99.
Grisso, T., & Barnum, R. (2006). Massachusetts youth screening instrument version 2: User’s
manual and technical report. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press.
Grisso, T., Barnum, R., Fletcher, K. E., Cauffman, E., & Peuschold, D. (2001). Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument for Mental Health Needs of Juvenile Justice Youths. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 541-548.
Grisso, T., Fusco, S., Paiva-Salisbury, M., Perrauot, R., Williams, V., & Barnum, R. (2012). The Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Version 2 (MAYSI-2): Comprehensive Research Review. Worcester, MA: University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Kerig, P. K., Moeddel, M. A., & Becker, S. P. (2011). Assessing the sensitivity and specificity of
the MAYSI-2 for detecting trauma among youth in juvenile detention. Child Youth Care Forum, 40, 345-362.