Priliminary Version of Psychological Problems Scale- Teacher Form: Development and Psychometric Evaluation

Background and Purpose: Comprehensive screening for health is a major step in improving the delivery of services, so that school-based psychological services can focus on prevention, early intervention, and promotion, rather than treatment. The aim of present study was to develop a scale of mental health issues for children, based on DSM-5 model. Method: The present study is descriptive in terms of data collection method. The statistical population of this study was composed of primary school teachers in Alborz, Kermanshah, Eastern Azerbaijan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Fars, and Khorasan Razavi. The sample included 219 teachers who were randomly selected. Results: Item analysis showed that no items were omitted from the questionnaire. Factor analysis indicated that seven-factor structure with principal component analysis and equamax rotation which determine 40 percent of the variance, simplest and most appropriate structure for the data. In addition, all the subscale had good reliability which ranged between 0.67 (self-regulation) to 0.93 (academic achievement deficit). Conclusion: In general, the results of this study indicate that considering the psychometric properties of the mental health scale of students in primary school, this tool can be used to study the students' behavioral and emotional problems in educational and clinical settings in Iranian population.