Diagnostic Interviewing with Children: The Use and Reliability of the Diagnostic Coding Form

Abstract

There have been few attempts to standardize assessment methods in Child Psychiatry. This paper describes a semi-structured approach to diagnostic interviewing of the child. Thirty-four children six to 13 years of age, and their parents, were interviewed two weeks apart by two different psychiatrists. A diagnostic coding form consisting of 29 clinical symptom items, eight summary items, and nine positive health ratings was used. Three diagnostic items were also included: "severity of clinical condition," "probability of disorder," and "adjustment status." Twelve of the Time 2 interviews with the child and parent were videotaped and rated by three different psychiatrists. Results indicated that summary items had higher reliability than individual symptom items and the three diagnostic items had the highest reliability, suggesting reliability is better for broad classes of behaviour. Interrater reliability was higher for the face-to-face rating than videotaped ratings. This suggests first that face-to-face interviews are reasonably stable over a two week period and second, since videotaped ratings had lowest reliability on items that depended on inferences about the child's feedlings, an important source of variance in assessment may be the clinician's ability to empathize with the child and draw inferences about internal feeling-states. It was concluded that this interview schedule can be a part of routine clinical practice. It ensures a reasonably standard, yet flexible and reliable approach to diagnostic interviewing.

Seven‐Year Follow‐Up of Speech/Language Impaired and Control Children: Psychiatric Outcome

“…Psychiatrists interviewed the children at follow-up using the same semi-structured interview protocol utilized at age 5 years, and described in Beitchman, Krudinier, Clegg, Hood, and Corradini (1989b). The children were randomly assigned to be interviewed by one of three child psychiatrists, each of whom was unaware of the child's S/L status and age 5 psychiatric status.…”

“…interviewed, followed by an individual interview with the child. Psychiatrists completed the diagnostic coding form (Beitchman et al, 1989b), which included symptom items, clinical subtypes. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-III-R diagnoses (APA, 1987), and adjustment status and severity indices.…”

Diagnosis in developmental–behavioural paediatrics: The art of diagnostic formulation

“…The development of a standardised, appropriately detailed coding form for diagnostic formulation in DBP could help improve diagnostic reliability 75,76 . This could also inspire the evolution of data systems that truly capture the complexity of DBP work, in contrast to reductionist measures such as ‘occasions of service’ or isolated categorical diagnoses.…”