Abstract
This paper discusses the need for research on the psychometric adequacy of self-completed problem checklists to classify child and adolescent psychiatric disorder based on proxy assessments by parents and self-assessments by adolescents. We put forward six theoretical arguments for expecting checklists to achieve comparable levels of reliability and validity with standardized diagnostic interviews for identifying child psychiatric disorder in epidemiological studies and clinical research. Empirically, the modest levels of test-retest reliability exhibited by standardized diagnostic interviews - 0.40 to 0.60 based on kappa - should be achievable by checklists when thresholds or cut-points are applied to scale scores to identify a child with disorder. The few studies to conduct head-to-head comparisons of checklists and interviews in the 1990s concurred that no construct validity differences existed between checklist and interview classifications of disorder, even though the classifications of youth with psychiatric disorder only partially overlapped across instruments. Demonstrating that self-completed problem checklists can classify disorder with similar reliability and validity as standardized diagnostic interviews would provide a simple, brief, flexible way to measuring psychiatric disorder as both a categorical or dimensional phenomenon as well as dramatically lowering the burden and cost of assessments in epidemiological studies and clinical research.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
More From: International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.