An Assessment of the Internal Structure of the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) Using Two Samples of High-Risk Adolescents

• Published in: Children and youth services review Vol. 156; p. 107365
• Main Authors: Childs, Kristina K., Bryson, Sara L., Soderstrom, Melanie F.P., Reed, April
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2024
• Subjects: Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths; Confirmatory factor analysis; Internal consistency; Internal structure; Confirmatory factor analysis; Internal structure; Internal consistency; Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths
• ISSN: 0190-7409; 1873-7765
• DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107365

•The CANS is a popular needs assessment used in behavioral health care settings across the United States.•The 6-domain structure of the CANS was acceptable, but meaningful differences were observed across samples.•Variation in the strength of internal consistency was found across CANS domains (within and across samples).•Future studies investigating the validity properties of the CANS are needed. The purpose of this study is to test the internal structure of the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) assessment, a widely used assessment of behavioral health difficulties among youth. The dimensionality and internal consistency of the CANS was examined using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Cronbach’s coefficients. Data were drawn from two separate samples of adolescents (ages 11–17) who completed the CANS as part of a community-based intervention program. The use of two separate samples facilitated assessments of measurement invariance (Sample 1, n = 120; Sample 2, n = 170). Results did not provide strong support for the internal structure of the CANS. Item performance (i.e., standardized factor loadings), explained factor variance (R2), and internal reliability estimates (α) were inconsistent across CANS domains and samples. The implications of these findings for continued use of the CANS domains in jurisdictions across the country are discussed and key areas for future research are outlined.