A test-retest reliability study of child-reported psychiatric symptoms and diagnoses using the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA-C).
Seventy-seven 10-18-year-old psychiatric in-patients and out-patients took part in a test-retest study of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA). They were interviewed on two occasions several days apart. Overall reliability of diagnosis ranged from kappa = 0.55 (conduct disorder) to 1.0 (substance abuse or dependence). In general, reliability for scale scores of psychopathology was somewhat lower in out-patients than in-patients, though the opposite was the case for anxiety disorders and psychosocial incapacity and the reliability of the diagnosis of conduct disorder--the only individual diagnosis sufficiently common to permit this comparison. Unreliability of reports of behavioural problems was found to be related to admitting to being a liar in the first interview. The implications of these results for the use of the CAPA are discussed.
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D008192:Deception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D015588:Observer Variation; D010343:Patient Admission; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology