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Young Person’s Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (YP-CORE)


What it is​

The YP-CORE (Young Person - Clinical Outcomes Routine Evaluation) is a self-report measure derived from the CORE-OM specifically for children and adolescents. It provides a measure of distress relating to a wide range of problems and provides information on the young person’s functioning. The measure comprises 10 items covering:

  • General functioning: 4 items on functioning in daily life
  • Problems and symptoms: 4 items on mental health issues such as symptoms of depression and anxiety
  • Wellbeing: 1 item on emotional health / subjective wellbeing
  • Risk: 1 item on risk to self

The measure is suitable as an initial screening tool and can be used to assess change following treatment.

How is it used​

  • Can be used with children and adolescents (11-16yrs)
  • Takes approximately 2mins to complete
  • Asks about distress over the last week
  • Can be used to evaluate functioning of a person and to track change during/after therapy

What do the scores mean?​

The YP-CORE has 10 items, with all items using the same five level response from 0 (not at all) to 4 (most of the time). The questionnaire is completed in relation to the past 7 days and provides a total score of distress. The total score is scored between 0 and 40 with higher scores reflecting worse distress and are categorised across six levels of severity:

  • Healthy (score of 0 to 4)
  • Low severity (score of 5 to 9)
  • Mild severity (score of 10 of 14)
  • Moderate severity (score of 15 to 19)
  • Moderate to severe severity (score of 20 to 24)
  • Severe severity (score of 25 to 40)

When administered more than once, trends can be viewed across the provided scores to assess change over time.

Developer​

The copyright holder for the YP-CORE is the CORE System Trust

Twigg et al. (2010). The Young Person’s CORE: Development of a brief outcome measure for young people. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research: Linking Research with Practice, 9: 160 – 168.

Further References​

Twigg et al. (2016). Acceptability, Reliability, Referential Distributions, and Sensitivity to Change of the YP-CORE Outcome Measure: Replication and Refinement’. Child and Adolescent Mental Health 21: 115–23