The Importance of Establishing Reliability and Validity of Assessment Instruments for Mental Health Problems: an Example from Somali Children and Adolescents Living in Three Refugee Camps in Ethiopia

Assessing mental health problems cross-culturally for children exposed to war and violence presents a number of unique challenges. One of the most important issues is the lack of validated symptom measures to assess these problems. The present study sought to evaluate the psychometric properties of two measures to assess mental health problems: the Achenbach Youth Self-Report and the Child Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Scale. We conducted a validity study in three refugee camps in Eastern Ethiopia in the outskirts of Jijiga, the capital of the Somali region. A total of 147 child and caregiver pairs were assessed, and scores obtained were submitted to rigorous psychometric evaluation. Excellent internal consistency reliability was obtained for symptom measures for children and their caregivers. Validation of study instruments based on local case definitions was obtained for the caregivers but not consistently for the children. Sensitivity and specificity of study measures were generally low, indicating that these scales would not perform adequately as screening instruments. Combined test–retest and inter-rater reliability was low for all scales. This study illustrates the need for validation and testing of existing measures cross-culturally. Methodological implications for future cross-cultural research studies in low- and middle-income countries are discussed.     

Model of religious schism with application to Islam

This is a study of religious schism. The purpose of the research is to explore the nature and causes of religious segmentation and realignment. A model of religious schism is developed and illustrated with reference to many different religions. The model is then directly applied to Islamic history. Schism occurs because of innovations in dogma or practice. These innovations must appeal to demanders of the religious product. However, the innovations themselves may be driven by organizational conflicts within firms supplying religion. A special situation is created when schism occurs within a state-supported supplier of religion. Our study leads us to revisit the debate between Hume and Smith over the effect of state religion. We side with Smith.