Background
The Children’s Somatization Inventory (CSI-24; Walker, Garber, & Greene., 1991) is a revised version from the original Children’s Somatization Inventory conceptualized by Walker and Colleagues in 1991. The original version of the CSI consisted of 35 items corresponding with symptoms consistent with the DSM-III-R criteria for Somatization Disorder. In 2009 the CSI was reviewed and a shorter version, consisting of 24 items, was created. The revised version was the result of eliminating 11 items that were rarely endorsed and had low item-total correlations.
There has been some controversy over the factorial structure of the instrument. Factorial Analysis of the CSI-24 found it not to be considered a strictly uni-dimentional instrument as although its items load onto one factor, with positive standardized factor loadings, the fit was found to be poor (Walker, Garber, & Greene., 1991). Further research has suggested that a 6-item one factor instrument demonstrates a better fit and adequate psychometric properties (Orgiles & Espada, 2013).
Validation
The inventory was conceptualized using a predominantly Caucasian clinical sample with a primary complaint of chronic abdominal pain, but this instrument has since been found a valid measure in community populations (Lavigne, Saps, & Bryant., 2012) and other cultures (Orgiles & Espada, 2013)
Psychometric properties
The CSI-24 has been found to correlate highly with the CSI-35 (– r=.99, p<.001; Walker et al., 2009) and hence has been considered a refined version of the original measure. The CSI-35 has been examined in numerous studies and has evidence of high concurrent and convergent validity (r>.4) with other measures of somatization, and good support from a number of studies for it’s construct validity.
- Internal Consistency alpha .84-.92 (Cerutti et al., 2017; Lavigne, Saps, & Bryant., 2012)
- Validity for the CSI-24 has been demonstrated in its correlation as expected with measures of anxiety, depression, functional impairment and quality of life (Lavigne, Saps, & Bryant., 2012)
- Scores for older children and females tend to be higher with a low to medium effect size (d=0.52) (Walker et al., 2009).
- Parent report has been shown to be lower in school samples and higher in clinical samples than the associated child report (Cerutti et al., 2017).
References
Cerutti R., Spensieri V., Valastro C., Presaghi F., & Guidetti V. (2017). A comprehensive approach to understand somatic symptoms and their Impact on emotional and psychosocial functioning in children. PLoS ONE, 12(2). doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0171867
Laird K., Sherman A., Smith C., & Walker L. (2015). Validation of the abdominal pain index using a revised scoring method. Journal Pediatric Psychology, 40(5). Doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jsu118
Lavigne, S.L., Saps, M., & Bryant, F.B. (2012). Reexamining the factor structure of somatization using the children’s somatization inventory (CSI-24) in a community sample. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 37, 914-924. Doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jss060
Orgiles, M. & Espada, J. P. (2014). Spanish version of the children’s somatization inventory: factorial structure and psychometric properties in a community sample. International Journal of Behavioural Medicine, 21, 556-560. Doi:10.1007/s12529-013-9335-9
Walker, L. S., Beck, J. E., Garber, J., & Lambert, W. (2009). Children’s somatization inventory: Properties of the revised form (CSI-24). Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 34, 430-440.