Measuring functional impairment: Preliminary psychometric properties of the Columbia Impairment Scale-Youth Version with youth accessing services at an outpatient substance use programme.

Results suggest that continued use of the CIS-Y with populations of youth, including emerging adults, is warranted. The scale has good internal consistency, loads onto one factor and discriminates between groups known to have lower and higher functioning. Further research is recommended that uses larger and more varying samples, as well as research that investigates optimal coding of non-applicable responses.