- August 22, 2018
- Jennifer Salerno
We are long past the days when “Do It Yourself” or “DIY” described college students creating projects on a dime. These days DIY is mainstream. On a whole, the DIY philosophy is laudable. It represents problem solving, independence, thrift, and creativity. However, there are times when DIY should be “DDIY” (Don’t Do It Yourself!)
Adolescent risk assessment is just such a case – whether it’s developing a screening tool completely from scratch – or creating an assessment that has just the “right” risk questions from existing screeners. There are actually a LOT of evidence-based, scientific reasons why adolescent risk screeners should not be a homegrown DIY.
Here are just 3 of the top reasons why Adolescent Risk Screening is a DIY Don’t:
- Risk assessment is about much more than just the questions. Many organizations who have created in-house screeners focus extensively on the questions to be included in the assessment. In youth risk reduction, questions are only the beginning. In fact – in the CDC framework for risk assessment development, only two of the ten recommendations (20%) focus on the questions themselves.
- Tailoring is critical. From an assessment that is tailored to literacy, culture and age – to the delivery of tailored, action-oriented, information – the CDC framework emphasizes the importance of tailoring in efficacy of risk identification and reduction.
- A risk screener must be evaluated for validity and reliability. In order for an assessment to be considered valid it must meet content, construct and criterion-related validity. In addition – it should be reliable (give the same results, with the same types of people, consistently).
To learn more about the differences between DIY tools and a validated, standardized assessment (and why those differences really matter), please check out our newest resource:
The Science of Youth Risk Assessment