The Child and Adolescent Social and Adaptive Functioning Scale (CASAFS): Directions for use

Description

The scale consists of 24 items designed to assess the social functioning of children and adolescents, defined as the degree to which an individual fulfills various roles in his or her life. The CASAF comprises four subscales examining functioning in four key social role areas relevant to children and adolescents, namely school performance, peer relationships, family relationships, and home duties / self-care.

Administration

The scale is completed by asking the child or adolescent to follow the instructions on the printed form. The child or adolescent is asked to rate on a 4-point scale – 1 = ‘never’, 2 = ‘sometimes’, 3 = ‘often’ or 4 = ‘always’ – how often each of the items best describes them. There is no set time period over which the judgment has to be made. The response is made by circling the appropriate number.

Items 1, 5, 9, and 13 may need to be re-worded if the listed school subjects are not relevant for your local area.

Scoring

The responses are scored:

Never = 1

Sometimes = 2

Often = 3

Always = 4

Three family relationships items (items 3, 7, and 11) that may not be applicable for all respondents have a fifth scoring category “Does not apply” that can be used by respondents.

“Does not apply” responses are scored as 2.5 (the midpoint)

Reverse Score Items 17, 18, 19, and 22

These are negatively worded and need to be reverse scored before calculating subscale and total scores.

Recode item17 (1=4) (2=3) (3=2) (4=1)

Recode item18 (1=4) (2=3) (3=2) (4=1)

Recode item19 (1=4) (2=3) (3=2) (4=1)

Recode item22 (1=4) (2=3) (3=2) (4=1)

The sub-scale scores are computed by adding the individual item scores on the set of items as follows:

School Performance / 1 / +5 / +9 / +13 / +17* / +21
Peer Relationships / 2 / +6 / +10 / +14 / +18* / +22*
Family Relationships / 3 / +7 / +11 / +15 / +19* / +23
Home duties / self-care / 4 / +8 / +12 / +16 / +20 / +24

(remember to reverse score the “*” items

The total score is the sum of all these four sub-scale scores (maximum possible score of 96). Higher scores reflect higher levels of social and adaptive functioning.