The Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) is a relatively brief self-report

Self-report inventory

A self-report inventory is a type of psychological test in which a person fills out a survey or questionnaire with or without the help of an investigator...

 psychometric instrument (questionnaire) published by the Clinical Assessment

Psychiatric assessment

A psychiatric assessment, or psychological screening, is a process of way of gathering information about a person within a psychiatric service, with the purpose of making a diagnosis. The assessment is usually the first stage of a treatment process, but psychiatric assessments may also be used for...

 division of the Pearson Assessment & Information

Pearson Assessment & Information

The Assessment & Information group of Pearson is a division of Pearson Education, a business of Pearson PLC. The group is a provider of assessment and education data management services.- Businesses :...

 group. It is designed to evaluate

Evaluation

Evaluation is systematic determination of merit, worth, and significance of something or someone using criteria against a set of standards.Evaluation often is used to characterize and appraise subjects of interest in a wide range of human enterprises, including the arts, criminal justice,...

 a broad range of psychological problems and symptoms of psychopathology

Psychopathology

Psychopathology is the study of mental illness, mental distress, and abnormal/maladaptive behavior. The term is most commonly used within psychiatry where pathology refers to disease processes...

. It is also used in measuring the progress and outcome of psychiatric

Psychiatry

Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...

 and psychological treatments or for research purposes.

According to the overview given by the publisher, the SCL-90-R is normed

Psychometrics

Psychometrics is the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational measurement...

 on individuals 13 years and older. It consists of 90 items and takes 12–15 minutes to administer, yielding nine scores along primary symptom dimensions and three scores among global distress

Distress

Distress may refer to:*Distress , occurring when an individual cannot adapt to stress*Suffering*Distress signal, an internationally recognized means for obtaining help...

 indices. The primary symptom

Symptom

A symptom is a departure from normal function or feeling which is noticed by a patient, indicating the presence of disease or abnormality...

 dimensions that are assessed are somatimization

Somatization

Somatization is currently defined as "a tendency to experience and communicate somatic distress in response to psychosocial stress and to seek medical help for it".This can be, but not always, related to a psychological condition:...

, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression

Depression (mood)

Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...

, anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...

, hostility

Hostility

Hostility is a form of angry internal rejection or denial in psychology. It is a part of personal construct psychology, developed by George Kelly...

, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, psychoticism

Psychoticism

Psychoticism is one of the three traits used by the psychologist Hans Eysenck in his P-E-N model model of personality. Psychoticism refers to a personality pattern typified by aggressiveness and interpersonal hostility.High levels of this trait were believed by Eysenck to be linked to increased...

, and a category of "additional items" which helps clinicians

Mental health professional

A mental health professional is a health care practitioner who offers services for the purpose of improving an individual's mental health or to treat mental illness. This broad category includes psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, psychiatric nurses, mental health...

 assess other aspect of the clients

Client

Client may refer to:* Customer, someone who purchases or hires something from someone else* Client , software that accesses a remote service on another computer* The client who received patronage in ancient Rome...

 symptoms (e.g. item 19, "poor appetite"). The three indices are global wellness index, hardiness

Psychological resilience

Resilience in psychology refers to the idea of an individual's tendency to cope with stress and adversity. This coping may result in the individual “bouncing back” to a previous state of normal functioning, or using the experience of exposure to adversity to produce a “steeling effect” and function...

, and symptom free. A high number of studies have been conducted demonstrating the reliability

Reliability (statistics)

In statistics, reliability is the consistency of a set of measurements or of a measuring instrument, often used to describe a test. Reliability is inversely related to random error.-Types:There are several general classes of reliability estimates:...

, validity

Validity (statistics)

In science and statistics, validity has no single agreed definition but generally refers to the extent to which a concept, conclusion or measurement is well-founded and corresponds accurately to the real world. The word "valid" is derived from the Latin validus, meaning strong...

, and utility of the instrument

Psychological testing

Psychological testing is a field characterized by the use of samples of behavior in order to assess psychological construct, such as cognitive and emotional functioning, about a given individual. The technical term for the science behind psychological testing is psychometrics...

. It is one of the most widely used measures of psychological distress in clinical practice and research.