Determinants of Reliability in Psychiatric Surveys of Children Aged 6–12

Abstract

The reliability of young children's self reports of psychiatric information is a concern of epidemiologists and clinicians alike. This paper explores the determinants of test-retest reliability in a sample of children from the general population using reliability coefficients constructed from a kappa statistic. Age, cognitive ability, and gender are related to consistency of reports in a test-retest paradigm. Controlling for age, cognitive ability and gender, children report more reliably on observable behaviors, and less reliably on questions involving unspecified time, reflections of one's own thoughts, and comparison of themselves with others. The reliability of reports of emotions lies between these two extremes. Surprisingly, sentence length of up to 40 words and psychiatric impairment of the child as measured by the Child Global Assessment Scale did not influence reliability. As might be expected, parents' reports of their children are more reliable than their children's reports.

Reliability, Validity, and Clinical Use of the Dominic Interactive: A DSM-Based, Self-Report Screen for School-Aged Children

“…According to Cohen,31 a sample size of 300 generates a standard error of 0.10 or less, when the kappa is 0.40 and the prevalence is 10% or more. To reach this prevalence level, each subsample would need to include about 25% of children from psychiatric clinics, 32 the others being drawn from the community.…”

Parental predictors of pediatric panic disorder/agoraphobia: a controlled study in high-risk offspring

“…Given these limitations, there is a real question about whether the young child's self-perceptions, memories, feelings, and reported behavior can be reliably assessed through self-report. Although limited, studies on the use of interview techniques among young children show that their replies are unreliable [Achenbach et al, 1987;Breton et al, 1995;Edelbrock et al, 1985;Fallon and Schwab-Stone, 1994;Schwab-Stone et al, 1994]. In contrast, Faraone et al [1995] and others have shown maternal reports of psychopathology to reach high levels of reliability, even over a 1-year period.…”

An Outcome Evaluation of the Success for Kids Program

“…Nonetheless, Grills and Ollendick (2003) have suggested that children younger than 10 may not have the ability to describe their feelings and behaviors accurately. As children age, they may become better informants (Kraemer et al, 2003) and their self-reports may become more reliable (Fallon and Schwab-Stone, 1994). There is little consensus about how to reconcile data from multiple informants.…”