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Development & Validation of a Short Version of the Symptomatic Transdiagnostic Test (s-S2T): A New Quick Screening Tool for Clinicians

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Abstract

The transdiagnostic approach has recently emerged in psychopathology and offers a new understanding of psychiatric disorders. However, this conceptualization has mainly focused on anxiety and depression. To fill this gap, researchers recently developed the Symptomatic Transdiagnostic Test (S2T). This tool offers a broader evaluation of patients, more than the assessment of anxiety and depression. However, this scale is time-consuming, and its psychometric properties have not been assessed in a clinical population. This study aims to develop a short version of such tool and to assess its psychometric properties within a clinical sample. We recruited 2 741 participants from the general population and 252 patients suffering from psychiatric disorders. They completed the s-S2T and the Transdiagnostic Skills Scale. We evaluated the factorial structure of the scale, its internal consistency, its concurrent validity and ecological validity. We found good fit indexes for a B-ESEM model composed of a general psychopathological factor and 10 specific factors. We found good internal consistency and concurrent validity with the transdiagnostic skills scale. Such results were found within both general and clinical population. Finally, we demonstrated higher levels of symptoms among the clinical population than among the general population except for addictive and eating disorder symptoms. The s-S2T has good psychometric properties within both general population and clinical population. It can be administrated quickly and offers a broad evaluation of psychopathology for clinicians and researchers.

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Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study can be consulted on reasonable request addressed to the corresponding author.

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Funding

This research did not receive funding.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Tours, Tours, France

    Ambre Deshayes

  2. Univ Lille, INSERM, CHU Lille, Lille Neuroscience and Cognition Centre (U-1172), Plasticity and SubjectivitY Team, CURE Platform, 59000, Lille, France

    Arnaud Leroy

  3. Univ. Lille, ULR 4072 – PSITEC – Psychologie: Interactions Temps Émotions Cognition, F-59000 , Lille, France

    Alexis Vancappel

Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. All authors gathered the data. The first author performed the statistical analyses and wrote the first version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexis Vancappel.

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Electronic Supplementary Material

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Cite this article

Deshayes, A., Leroy, A. & Vancappel, A. Development & Validation of a Short Version of the Symptomatic Transdiagnostic Test (s-S2T): A New Quick Screening Tool for Clinicians. J Rat-Emo Cognitive-Behav Ther 43, 33 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10942-025-00605-1

  • Accepted
  • Published
  • DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10942-025-00605-1

Keywords

  • Transdiagnostic
  • Psychiatry
  • Questionnaire
  • Psychometric
  • Psychopathology
  • Factorial structure

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