국내 청소년 대상 단기 위험성 및 치료가능성 평가도구(START:AV) 타당화 연구

There is growing need to introduce a youth risk assessment tool that is suitable for the developmental characteristics of adolescents and the juvenile justice system in South Korea. Existing risk assessment tools for Korean adolescents have limitations, including reliance on actuarial tools, lack of validity and reliability studies, and constraints in intervention planning. The Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability: Adolescent Version (START:AV) is a Structured Professional Judgement(SPJ) tool designed to assess adolescents’ short-term risk and treatability across nine adverse outcomes, evaluating each of its 25 items as both vulnerabilities and strengths. This study examined the inter-rater reliability and convergent validity of START:AV to explore its applicability to Korean adolescents. Interviews were conducted with 59 adolescents aged 13-20 years who participated in programs at G Centers nationwide. Three experts who completed the START:AV manual training and practice cases conducted the assessments. The analysis revealed good to excellent intraclass correlation coefficients for both vulnerabilities and strengths, as well as appropriate convergent validity with other adolescent risk assessment tools which following SPJ approach. This study highlights the practicality of START:AV and its potential for application in Korea, providing insights beyond the limitations of existing youth risk assessment tools.