Standardised Observation Analogue Procedure (SOAP) for assessing parent and child behaviours in clinical trials.
BACKGROUND
Observational measures of parent and child behaviours have a long history in child psychiatric and psychological intervention research, including the field of autism and developmental disability. We describe the development of the Standardised Observational Analogue Procedure (SOAP) for the assessment of parent-child behaviour before and after a structured parent training program for children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD). We report on the use of this procedure in a pilot study of 12 participants with PDD.


RESULTS
Inter-rater reliability across behaviours coded ranged from 75-100% agreement. Blindly scored observations of behaviour showed medium effect sizes for changes in inappropriate child behaviour. Analyses of baseline scores revealed a moderate positive correlation between inappropriate child behaviours as measured in all four SOAP conditions and parent ratings of child noncompliance (r(s) = .66, p < .05). By contrast, the correlations of SOAP scores with parent ratings of irritability was lower (r(s) = .40, p >.05).


CONCLUSIONS
As our treatment targeted compliance, these preliminary results suggest that the SOAP provides a valid measure of noncompliant behaviour in children with PDD and is sensitive to treatment effects on inappropriate child behaviours.
Johnson
Cynthia R
CR
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Autism Center, 3705 5th Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. cynthia.johnson@chp.edu
Butter
Eric M
EM
Handen
Benjamin L
BL
Sukhodolsky
Denis G
DG
Mulick
James
J
Lecavalier
Luc
L
Aman
Michael G
MG
Arnold
L Eugene
LE
Scahill
Lawrence
L
Swiezy
Naomi
N
Sacco
Kelley
K
Stigler
Kimberly A
KA
McDougle
Christopher J
CJ
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000145:classification; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004493:Education; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019370:Observation / Q000379:methods*; D015588:Observer Variation; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D010865:Pilot Projects
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