Assessing School Refusal: Arabic Adaptation and Psychometric Properties of the School Refusal Evaluation (SCREEN) from Adolescents in Algeria

In this article, we present an Arabic adaptation and validation of the School Refusal Evaluation (SCREEN). This measure aims to understanding the strong negative emotions and anxiety of the adolescent toward school. For this purpose, two studies (i.e., validation and cross-validation) with a student sample in middle schools (age range 12–16) using two independent community samples (N = 658; N = 485) were designed to provide evidence based on internal structure, internal consistency reliability and evidence-based on relationship with conceptually related constructs. Confirmatory factor analyses did not confirm a four-factor but a three-factor latent structure of the SCREEN. The SCREEN scores demonstrated good reliability and were significantly and positively related to Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. In conclusion, the results of this study provide validity evidence for the SCREEN as a measure of school refusal and thus could be utilized in research and clinical settings.