title: A survey of the assessment practices of child and adolescent clinicians.
abstract: Practicing child and adolescent clinicians (N=309) completed a survey regarding their actual and preferred child and adolescent assessment practices. Most reported using the following tools: family interview, individual child/teen interview, and a review of previous treatment records. The majority reported interviewing the identified child/teen patient and the adults in the home with a parental role. Clinicians reported they would also prefer to use parent rating scales, teacher rating scales, child/teen self-report scales, naturalistic observation, and a review of recent report cards and previous educational testing. The top 3 factors reported to influence assessment practice were ethics, organizational pressures, and theoretical orientation. Twenty-one percent of the sample reported that research findings are unimportant in their assessment decision making.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Counseling, Marywood University, Scranton, PA 10509, USA. palmiter@marywood.edu
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Palmiter
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent / Q000379:methods*; D002666:Psychology, Child / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires