The Brief Child and Family Phone Interview (BCFPI): 1. Rationale, development, and description of a computerized children's mental health intake and outcome assessment tool.
BACKGROUND
This study describes the development of the Brief Child and Family Phone Interview (BCFPI) - a computer-assisted telephone interview which adapts the revised Ontario Child Health Study's (OCHS-R) parent, teacher, and youth self-report scales for administration as intake screening and treatment outcome measures in children's mental health services. It focuses on the factor structure of the BCFPI's hypothesized parent-reported child mental health scales describing attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), conduct disorder (CD), separation anxiety disorder (SAD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and major depression (MDD).


METHODS
Data for the analysis come from an OCHS-R measurement study that included two groups of children and adolescents selected from the same urban area: a general population sample (n = 1,712) and a clinic-referred sample (n = 1,512); and a third sample that was enlisted in a province-wide implementation study of clinic-referred 6- to 18-year-olds (n = 56,825). We used confirmatory factor analysis to assess the factor structure of the BCFPI scales in different populations and to test measurement equivalence across selected groups.


RESULTS
Despite the strong constraints imposed on the measurement models, estimates of model fit across the three samples were comparable in magnitude and approached the cut-offs suggested for the GFI and CFI (>.9) and RMSEA (<.05). Measurement equivalence was demonstrated between the OCHS-R clinic and provincial implementation samples. Within the implementation sample, the factor structure of the BCFPI scales was equivalent for boys versus girls and for 6- to 12- versus 13- to 18-year-olds. A companion paper examines the test-retest reliability, sensitivity, specificity, and validity of these BCFPI scales when used for screening.


CONCLUSIONS
This project supports the feasibility and acceptability of a computer-assisted telephone interview for assessing emotional-behavioral problems of children and adolescents referred to children's mental health services.
Cunningham
Charles E
CE
Offord Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada.
Boyle
Michael H
MH
Hong
Sunjin
S
Pettingill
Peter
P
Bohaychuk
Donna
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D001010:Anxiety, Separation / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D019958:Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D019955:Conduct Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D001330:Electronic Data Processing; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009864:Ontario / Q000453:epidemiology; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010290:Parents; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires