Identification of social-emotional problems in young children using a parent-completed screening measure Jane Squires a, *, Diane Bricker a , Kay Heo b , Elizabeth Twombly c a Early Intervention Program, College of Education, University of Oregon, 5253 University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-5253, USA b Department of Early Childhood Special Education, Woosuk University, South Korea c Early Intervention Program, College of Education, University of Oregon, 5253 University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-5253, USA Abstract The early identification of social and emotional problems in infants, toddlers, and young children is critical for improving developmental outcomes. The Ages and Stages Questionnaires: Social- Emotional, a newly-developed screening tool, is described in this article. Questionnaires span the 3- to 63-month period with 8 separate assessment intervals. Research findings, including data on 3014 questionnaires, are reported. Internal consistency was generally high, with an overall alpha of 0.82. Test-retest reliability between parents’ classifications was 0.94. Sensitivity ranged from 0.75 to 0.89 with 0.82 overall sensitivity; specificity ranged from 0.82 to 0.96 with 0.92 overall specificity. Parents reported easy understanding and high satisfaction with the questionnaires. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Identification of social-emotional problems in young children using a parent- completed screening measure The timely and accurate identification of young children with social or emotional prob- lems is critical to their well being; however, few strategies exist for the early and timely identification of young children who have or may develop behavioral or mental health  Developmental screening tests, unlike medical screenings such as thyroid and vision tests, have no “gold standard”; therefore the criterion measures as well as the screening instrument may be in error regarding the developmental status of the child (Meisels, 1988). * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-541-346-0807; fax: +1-541-346-5639 E-mail address: jsquires@oregon.uoregon.edu (J. Squires). Early Childhood Research Quarterly 16 (2001) 405– 419 0885-2006/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. PII: S0885-2006(01)00115-6