New Horizons for Young Women
Youth Outcome Questionnaire Effectiveness Measures 2003- 2005

Prompted by Keith Russell Ph.D.'s research at the University of Idaho (2002), NHYW chose to administer an industry wide accepted, outcome instrument; the Youth Outcome Questionnaire- Self Report (YOQ-SR ) and Youth Outcome Questionnaire (YOQ). Russell's 2002 independent longitudinal study tracked treatment outcomes for adolescents who attended one of seven participating Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare (OBH) programs from May1, 2000 - December 1, 2000. Russell's study indicated that on average clients in outdoors based programs made significant improvement from treatment to discharge as measured by the YOQ.

The YOQ and YOQ-SR are outcome based questionnaires specifically designed to track behavior change and treatment progress for adolescents and children. These outcomes based tools developed by Michael Lambert Ph.D at Brigham Young University comprise of 64 items, rated on a 5 point Likert Scale. Through the use of cut-off scores and a reliable change index the measure compares the client's behavioral similarity at each measurement interval to a residential, partial hospital, outpatient population and a large untreated community sample. The YOQ is a parent report measure of treatment progress while the YOQ-SR is a self report measure for adolescents. The YOQ-SR is designed to track progress and assess behavior change as adolescent clients perceive it themselves.

Starting in July 2003 NHYW began administering the YOQ-SR2.0 with students and YOQ 2.0 with parents. Questionnaires were given to both students and parents at admission, to students mid way through their stay, to students at discharge and then mailed to parents with the final discharge summary.

The YOQ-SR 2.0 & YOQ 2.0 are specifically designed to track progress and measure behavior change as the adolescents and their parents perceive it. The questionnaire completed at intake establishes a severity baseline from which treatment progress can be tracked. Although the YOQ 2.0 & YOQ-SR 2.0 have six separate subscales designed to measure specific areas of behavior it is the total score that is the best index of global change and has the highest reliability and validity when compared to scales individually. The YOQ and YOQ-SR have been widely tested and normative data has been established for adolescents in the community, in partial hospitalization programs, those receiving outpatient treatment and in hospitals.

Table 1. Illustrates Baseline (admission) YOQ-SR scores for students at NHYW compared to baseline scores for students in residential programs, those receiving outpatient treatment, in partial hospitalization programs and in the community. The average baseline scores for students at NHYW are slightly higher than those scores established through research for residential, outpatient and partial hospitalization programs. However the average baseline score at NHYW of 72 is similar to the average baseline (admission)score reported by in Russell's 2002 research of OBH programs of 71.32 (see Table 3).



Table 2. Illustrates the change in average total scores from admission to discharge for NHYW students completing the YOQ-SR 2.0. The Administrative and Scoring Manuals provide cut off scores that reflect the behavior of those who have not sought treatment and may be assumed to be 'normal'. For the YOQ-SR 2.0 this score is 47. The average discharge score for students at NHYW is 44. For NHYW students the drop in scores from admission to discharge was 28 points. This exceeds the YOQ-SR 2.0 criteria (a change in scores of 18 points or more) indicating clinically significant change.



Table 3. Compares the average total scores at admissions and discharge for NHYW and the results of Keith Russell Ph.D's research 2002 on outdoor behavioral health programs similar to NHYW



Overall Results from YOQ-SR 2.0 surveys at NHYW from 7/03 - 5/05.

It can be concluded from the NHYW YOQ-SR 2.0 average scores that those students completing the program have experienced clinically significant change and could be said to have 'recovered'. The average NHYW total score at discharge of 44 meets the YOQ-SR 2.0 cut off score of 47, indicating that behaviors at discharge are within the levels reported by those who have not sought treatment. NHYW average scores also meet the YOQ-SR2.0 criteria for clinically significant change due to a total drop in scores of 18 points or more between baseline and end score. At NHYW the average difference in total scores was 28 points, from 72 at admissions to 44 at discharge.

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