CLES™

The scales allow clinicians to easily identify actual and potential physical and mental health problems arising from psychological causalities. By measuring significant life events in terms of Life Change Units (LCUs), the CLES can provide insight into recent events that may be affecting the respondent’s health. The CLES scales also take into account the different kinds of life challenges that are faced by children of different ages. There are three scales and the items included on each refer to events that children of the particular age group may have experienced. Each form produces a Life Change Unit score that is applied to Risk Evaluation cut-off guidelines.

Reliability

Test-retest reliability of the CLES–A was examined with 120 high school students who completed the questionnaire on three separate occasions, as well as with a sample of 63 students. The results support the test-retest reliability of the CLES.

Inter-rater reliability of the CLES–A was examined by having 30 adolescent boys and their parents report life events that the boys had experienced during two different periods of time. Agreement was highest for recent family events.

Validity

The CLES Manual provides the psychometric properties of the scales with information about the reliability and validity of the CLES, as well as the development process. The manual also provides complete references for several studies as well as for various instruments that were used to validate the CLES, as outlined in the following:

• Content validity of the CLES–C was examined by administering the scale to 345 children and 379 parents.
• Concurrent validity of the CLES–C was investigated in a research study involving 84 fourth graders and their parents. Predictive validity was also assessed using this same fourth-grade sample. Children completed the CLES–C, a measure of family supportiveness, and the Comprehension Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) intelligence measure. The results of these studies all supported the validity of the CLES.
• Several research studies also show a predictive link between CLES scores and physical injury.
• Discriminant validity is also evaluated through several studies. One study consisted of adolescents between the ages of 13 and 19 who had been admitted to a children’s hospital in Philadelphia over a one-year period. The participants were classified into two groups; an injury group consisted of 149 adolescents and an ill group consisted of 258 adolescents.
• As part of the restandardization of the MMPI, a version of the CLES–A strongly discriminated between a clinical sample and a normal control sample.

The CLES was normed on a sample of 3,617 children and parents.