Somatization symptoms in a community sample of children and adolescents: Further validation of the Children's Somatization Inventory.

Abstract

This study provides further evidence of the validity of the Children's Somatization Inventory (CSI) and normative information about the intensity, frequency, and types of somatic complaints reported by 540 children and adolescents in a community sample. Among high school students, girls had significantly higher scores on the CSI than did boys. Factor analysis of the CSI yielded 4 factors that correspond to the first 4 categories of the DSM-1I1-R Somatization criteria. The CSI had good concurrent validity with another self-report measure of somatic symptoms and a low but significant correlation with parents' reports of their children's somatic symptoms on the parent version of the CSI. Significant correlations of the CSI with self-report measures of anxiety, depression, and perceived competence provided evidence of its construct validity. The implications of these findings for understanding Somatization disorder in children and adolescents are discussed.