Design of a Questionnaire for Psychosocial and Complaint Characterisation in University Psychological Assistance Centres

Characterizing chief psychological consulting complaints is often difficult due their varied and multidimensional nature, which is reflected by the lack of appropriate instruments to gather systematic information. However, such systematization would encourage better targeting of limited mental healthcare resources through a description and characterization of reasons for encounter. To add to these efforts, this descriptive study presents the process of conceptualizing, developing and applying a questionnaire to conduct a psychosocial and chief complaint characterization in a sample of children (N = 418, M-age = 8.4, SDage = 2.17), teenagers (N = 238, M-age = 15.2, SDage = 1.54) and adults (N = 869, M-age = 30.8, SDage = 13.03) who consulted at 28 University-based Psychological Assistance Centers across Colombia, along with validity evidences, with the goal of providing Latin American psychological communities with a guide to building localized instruments.