The assessment of maladaptive parent-child interaction by direct observation: an analysis of methods.

Six direct observation technologies for assessing parent-child interactions are examined: Descriptive-narrative, event recording, three types of interval sampling, and sequential event recording. Selected articles in the clinical literature are reviewed to illustrate use of each technology. Furthermore, the yield of each procedure in terms of four assessment criteria was evaluated: precise description of the parent-child interaction, target selection, identification of the intervention strategy, and evaluation of the intervention technique. The sequential-event-recording technology was determined to be most advantageous in terms of the four criteria.