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A test–retest reliability study of child-reported psychiatric symptoms and diagnoses using the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA-C)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

A. Angold*
Affiliation:
Developmental Epidemiology Program, Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
E. J. Costello
Affiliation:
Developmental Epidemiology Program, Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Adrian Angold. Developmental Epidemiology Program, Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Box 3454, Durham, NC 27710, USA.

Synopsis

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 K = 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.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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