Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment最新文献

We conducted secondary analyses of existing data to examine the association between parent scores on the Knowledge of Effective Parenting Test (KEPT) and child symptoms of Conduct Disorder (CD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). Parent knowledge of behavior management skills and child behavior symptoms were assessed in a nationally representative sample of parents/guardians (N = 1,570) of children aged 5-12 from all 50 states. Results showed consistent and robust correlations between parent knowledge of behavior management skills and CD symptoms but not ODD symptoms. These findings suggest that parent knowledge of behavior management may be a greater risk factor for CD than ODD, with implications for taxonomy and understanding the etiology of these two disorders. We also discuss the implications of these findings for the prevention and treatment of these two disorders which are often grouped together in treatment trials.

Research in youth psychopathy has focused heavily on the affective features (i.e., callous-unemotional [CU] traits) given robust links to severe and chronic forms of externalizing behaviors. Recently, there have been calls to expand the scope of work in this area to examine the importance of other interpersonal (i.e., antagonism) and behavioral (i.e., disinhibition) features of psychopathy. In the present study, we apply an under-utilized statistical approach (i.e., dominance analysis) to assess the relative importance of CU traits, antagonism, and disinhibition in the prediction of externalizing behaviors in youth, cross-sectionally and at 9-month follow-up. Using a multi-informant (youth- and parent-report), multi-method (questionnaire, ecological momentary assessment [EMA]) preregistered approach in a diverse sample of clinically referred youth (M_age = 12.60 years, SD = .95 years, 47% female; 61% racial/ethnic minority), we found youth- and parent-reported psychopathy features accounted for a significant proportion of variance in externalizing behavior cross-sectionally and longitudinally. However, results provided limited support for our preregistered hypotheses. While antagonism and disinhibition had larger general dominance weights relative to CU traits for both youth- and parent-report, most differences were non-significant. Thus, the interpersonal, affective, and behavioral psychopathy features could not be distinguished from one another in terms of their importance in the prediction of externalizing behavior, assessed cross-sectionally or longitudinally. Taken together, the results highlight promising avenues for future research on the relative importance of youth psychopathy features.

Structured and semi-structured diagnostic interviews (SDIs) are widely used to gather diagnostic information and have important utility in both research and clinical settings. However, when youth are being assessed, SDIs increase the demands on time or personnel resources and often result in high rates of discordance between informants. In the current study, the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule (ADIS) was administered jointly to 89 youth and their parents. All 89 youth had also participated in a clinical evaluation prior to their enrollment in the study. A subset of these evaluations included the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents (MINI-KID) while the remainder included unstructured interviews. The jointly administered ADIS was found to be reliably administered and demonstrated good convergent and divergent validity. The MINI-KID - selected due to its comprehensiveness, brief administration time, and sound psychometric properties - also demonstrated validity and agreement with the ADIS. Additionally, the inclusion of the MINI-KID in the clinical evaluations increased the specificity of diagnoses included in the medical record. The current study provides preliminary support for the joint, caregiver-child administration of the ADIS and the MINI-KID in both clinical and research settings. The use of these measures could reduce resource demands in research settings and increase the validity of diagnoses offered following intake sessions in clinical settings.