Preliminary validation of a set of content analysis scales applicable to verbal samples for measuring the magnitude of psychological states in children.

Scores on 17 psychological dimensions of the Gottschalk-Gleser content analysis scales were obtained from 5-minute speech samples of 37 white children hospitalized on the psychiatric service of a general hospital. These content analysis scores were compared to identical scores obtained from a normative sample of 109 white children. Groups of children were classified by the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP) system as having Healthy Responses (N = 2), Personality Disorders (N = 17), Reactive Disorders (N = 9), Psychoneurotic Disorders (N = 7), and Developmental Deviations (N = 2), and by DSM-III as having Parent-Child Problems (N = 2), Conduct Disorders (N = 26), Anxiety Disorders (N = 7), and Special Developmental Disorders (N = 2). By either classification, these groups of children showed salient differences in their scores in certain psychological dimensions from the same types of scores occurring with the normative group. These findings provide initial construct validation of the Gottshalk-Gleser content analysis scales when applied to speech samples obtained for children. Moreover, the profiles of children's psychological characteristics obtained by this method provide, in themselves, an objective descriptive and dynamic classification.