Psychometric properties of Darryl, a cartoon based measure to assess community violence-related PTSD in children.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the reliability and validity of Darryl, a cartoon-based measure of PTSD symptoms and a screening tool for identifying children and adolescents with a PTSD diagnosis.


METHODS
Exposure to community violence, PTSD symptoms and diagnostic status were assessed in a sample of 49 children and adolescents at an urban outpatient psychiatry clinic.


RESULTS
Darryl has good internal consistency for the full scale and adequate reliability for each DSM-IV PTSD symptom cluster. Darryl correlates significantly (r = 0.64, P < 0.001) with the most frequently used measure for assessing PTSD in children (CPTSD-RI). As a screening tool, Darryl has excellent sensitivity and specificity in relationship to the KID-SCID.


CONCLUSIONS
In comparison to other child PTSD measures, Darryl has comparable or better psychometric properties and assesses PTSD symptoms in a more developmentally appropriate manner, especially in the domain of community violence. The value of Darryl as a screening tool remains preliminary given the limited number of diagnosed cases of PTSD in the study sample. Full scale efforts at replication are warranted.
Geller
Pamela A
PA
Department of Psychology, Drexel University, 245 N. 15th St., Mail Stop 515, Philadelphia, PA 19102, USA. pg27@drexel.edu
Neugebauer
Richard
R
Possemato
A Kyle
AK
Walter
Patricia
P
Dummit
E Steven
ES
Silva
Raul R
RR
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D002359:Cartoons as Topic / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D009519:New York City / Q000453:epidemiology; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011204:Poverty Areas; D011386:Projective Techniques / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D014505:Urban Population; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*