Study II: concurrent validity of the DSM-III-R Children's Interview for Psychiatric Syndromes (ChIPS).

OBJECTIVE

To test the concurrent validity of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., revised) (DSM-III-R) revised Children's Interview for Psychiatric Syndromes (ChIPS).

METHOD

In this study, the DSM-III-R revised ChIPS, the DSM-III-R revised Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents (DICA-R-C), and clinicians' diagnoses were compared in 71 inpatients and outpatients 6 to 13 years of age using a standard kappa coefficient or a rare kappa coefficient and percentage agreement.

RESULTS

High levels of agreement were found between the two interviews on all 14 syndromes analyzed (p < 0.05). ChIPS and DICA also had high levels of agreement with clinicians' diagnoses. When DSM-III-R revised ChIPS and DICA-R-C results were discrepant, ChIPS results were somewhat more likely than DICA-R-C results (48 % versus 38%) to agree with the clinician's diagnoses.

CONCLUSION

ChIPS appears to be a valid assessment for screening children in inpatient and outpatient mental health facilities. It has the added benefit of being brief, with average administration time of 46 minutes for an inpatient sample and 36 minutes for an outpatient sample.