Abstract
The need to assess Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) disorders in children younger than 7 years of age has intensified as clinical efforts to diagnose and treat this population have increased, and clinical research on psychopathology has advanced. A new diagnostic instrument for young children was created, the Diagnostic Infant Preschool Assessment (DIPA), and was tested for test–retest reliability and concurrent criterion validity. The caregivers of 50 outpatients aged 1–6 years were interviewed twice by trained interviewers, once by a clinician and once by a research assistant, about eight disorders. The median test–retest intraclass correlation was 0.69, mean 0.61, and values ranged from 0.24 to 0.87. The median test–retest kappa was 0.53, mean 0.52, and values ranged from 0.38 to 0.66. There were no differences by duration between interviews. Concurrent criterion validity show good agreement between the instrument and DSM-based Child Behavior Checklist scales when the DSM-based scales were matched well to the disorder (attention-deficit/hyperactivity inattentive and hyperactive and oppositional disorders). Preliminary data support the DIPA as a reliable and valid measure of symptoms in research and clinical work with very young children. This measure adds a tool that is flexible in covering both DSM-IV syndromes and empirically-validated developmental modifications that can help increase confidence in assessing young children, ensuring coverage of symptoms, and improve access to care.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Campbell S (1995) Behavior problems in preschool children: a review of recent research. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 36:113–149
Zito JM, Safer DJ, Valluri S, Gardner JF, Korelitz JJ, Mattison DR (2007) Psychotherapeutic medication prevalence in medicaid-insured preschoolers. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol 17:195–203
Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (2002) Public law 107–109
Pediatric Research Equity Act (2003) Public law 108–155
Luby JL (2007) Guest editorial: psychopharmacology of psychiatric disorders in the preschool period. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol 17:149–151
Gleason MM, Egger HL, Emslie GJ, Greenhill LL, Kowatch RA, Lieberman AF, Luby JL, Owens J, Scahill LD, Scheeringa MS, Stafford B, Wise B, Zeanah CH (2007) Psychopharmacological treatment for very young children: contexts and guidelines. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 46:1532–1572
Zeanah CH (ed) (2009) Handbook of infant mental health, 3rd edn. Guilford Press, New York
Luby JL (ed) (2006) Handbook of preschool mental health. Guilford Press, New York
Task Force on Research Diagnostic Criteria: Infancy, Preschool (2003) Research diagnostic criteria for infants and preschool children: the process and empirical support. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 42:1504–1512
Achenbach TM, Dumenci L, Rescorla LA (2003) DSM-Oriented and empirically based approaches to constructing scales from the same item pools. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 32:328–340
Carter AS, Briggs-Gowan MJ, Kogan N (1999) The infant-toddler social and emotional assessment (ITSEA): Comparing parent ratings to laboratory observations of task mastery, emotion regulation, coping behaviors and attachment status. Infant Mental Health J 20:375–392
American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th edn. American Psychiatric Association, Washington
Measelle JR, Ablow JC, Cowan PA, Cowan CP (1998) Assessing young children’s views of their academic, social, and emotional lives: an evaluation of the self-perception scales of the Berkeley puppet interview. Child Dev 69:1556–1576
Scheeringa MS, Peebles CD, Cook CA, Zeanah CH (2001) Toward establishing procedural, criterion, and discriminant validity for PTSD in early childhood. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 40:52–60
Egger HL, Erkanli A, Keeler G, Potts E, Walter BK, Angold A (2006) Test–retest reliability of the preschool age psychiatric assessment (PAPA). J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 45:538–549
Schwab-Stone M, Shaffer D, Dulcan M, Jensen PS, Fisher P, Bird HR, Goodman SH, Lahey BB, Lichtman JH, Canino G, Rubio-Stipec M, Rae DS (1996) Criterion validity of the NIMH diagnostic interview schedule for children version 2.3 (DISC-2.3). J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 35:878–888
Shaffer D, Fisher P, Dulcan MK, Davies M, Piacentini J, Schwab-Stone ME, Lahey BB, Bourdon K, Jensen PS, Bird HR, Canino G, Regier DA (1996) The NIMH diagnostic interview schedule for children version 2.3 (DISC-2.3): description, acceptability, prevalence rates, and performance in the MECA study. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 35:865–877
Luby JL, Heffelfinger AK, Mrakotsky C, Hessler MJ, Brown KM, Hilderbrand T (2002) Preschool major depressive disorder: preliminary validation for developmentally modified DSM-IV criteria. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 41:928–937
Scheeringa MS, Zeanah CH, Myers L, Putnam FW (2003) New findings on alternative criteria for PTSD in preschool children. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 42:561–570
Achenbach TM, Edelbrock C (1983) Manual for the child behavior checklist and revised child behavior profile. University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry, Burlington
Krol NPCM, DeBruyn EEJ, Coolen JC, van Aarle EJM (2006) From CBCL to DSM: a comparison of two methods to screen for DSM-IV diagnoses using CBCL data. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 35:127–135
Wolfe VV, Gentile C, Wolfe DA (1989) The impact of sexual abuse on children: a PTSD formulation. Behav Ther 20:215–228
Dehon C, Scheeringa MS (2005) Screening for preschool posttraumatic stress disorder with the child behavior checklist. J Pediatr Psychol 31:431–435
Hamer RM (1990) Compute six intraclass correlation coefficients. Commonwealth University, Virginia
Shrout PE, Fleiss JL (1979) Intraclass correlations: uses in assessing rater reliability. Psychol Bull 86:420–428
McGraw KO, Wong SP (1996) Forming inferences about some intraclass correlation coefficients. Psychol Method 1:30–46
Cohen JC (1988) Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences, 2nd edn. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale
Landis JR, Koch G (1977) The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics 33:159–174
Kaufman J, Birmaher B, Brent D, Rao U, Flynn C, Moreci P, Williamson D, Ryan N (1997) Schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia for school-age children-present and lifetime version (K-SADS-PL): initial reliability and validity data. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 36:980–988
Fisher PW, Shaffer D, Piacentini JC, Lapkin J, Kafantaris V, Leonard H, Herzog DB (1993) Sensitivity of the diagnostic interview schedule for children, 2nd edn. (DISC-2.1) for specific diagnoses of children and adolescents. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 32:666–673
Schwab-Stone M, Fisher PW, Piacentini JC, Shaffer D, Davies M, Briggs M (1993) The diagnostic interview schedule for children-revised version (DISC-R): II. Test–retest reliability. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 32:651–657
Welner Z, Reich W, Herjanic B, Jung KG (1987) Reliability, validity, and parent–child agreement studies of the diagnostic interview for children and adolescents (DICA). J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 26:649–653
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH065884). The author wishes to thank the staff of the St. Tammany ECSS clinic, and the staff of the Orleans Parish ECSS clinic.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Scheeringa, M.S., Haslett, N. The Reliability and Criterion Validity of the Diagnostic Infant and Preschool Assessment: A New Diagnostic Instrument for Young Children. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 41, 299–312 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-009-0169-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-009-0169-2