Screening for Family Psychosocial Risk in Pediatric Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation with the Psychosocial Assessment Tool

•The Psychosocial Assessment Tool-Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (PAT-HCT) is a measure of family psychosocial risk for families of a child undergoing HCT.•The PAT-HCT demonstrates strong reliability and validity with moderate to strong correlations with the validation measures.•The majority of families fall into the universal level of risk. A greater proportion of families scored at the targeted and clinical levels of risk than in previous studies.•Overall, parents were appreciative that they were asked about the patient's and family's well-being.•Parents were provided with feedback about their risk scores on the PAT-HCT and found this process helpful. Family psychosocial risk screening is an important initial step in delivering evidence-based care in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT). Establishing an evidence-based screening approach that is acceptable, reliable, and valid is an essential step in psychosocial care delivery. This is a 3-institution multimethod study. In part 1, caregivers of children about to undergo HCT (n = 140) completed the Psychosocial Assessment Tool–Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (PAT-HCT), a brief parent report screener adapted for HCT, and validating questionnaires. Families received feedback on their risks identified on the PAT-HCT. In part 2, 12 caregivers completed a semistructured interview about their perceptions of the PAT and the feedback process. The reliability and validity of the PAT-HCT total and subscale scores were tested using Kuder-Richardson-20 (KR-20) and Pearson correlations. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative interview data. Internal consistency for the total score (KR-20 = .88) and the Child Problems, Sibling Problems, Family Problems, and Stress Reactions subscales were strong (KR-20 >.70). Family Structure, Social Support, and Family Beliefs subscales were adequate (KR-20 = .55 to .63). Moderate to strong correlations with the criteria measures provided validation for the total and subscale scores. Feedback was provided to 97.14% of the families who completed the PAT-HCT, and the mean rating of acceptability was >4.00 (on a 5-point scale). The qualitative data indicate that families appreciate the effort to provide screening and feedback. The PAT-HCT is a psychometrically sound screener for use in HCT. Feedback can be given to families. Both the screener and the feedback process are acceptable to caregivers.