ASSESSMENT OF CHILDHOOD PHOBIAS

Childhood phobias can be successfully treated using a variety of behav ioral strategies, provided there has been a psychometrically sound ass essment. Measures are also important for the evaluation of treatment e fficacy and the testing of hypotheses generated by new ideas and theor ies of children's phobias. This paper outlines broad-based assessment procedures used in the evaluation of children's phobias, including the behavioral or problem-focused interview, the diagnostic interview, se lf-report inventories, caregiver completed instruments, behavioral obs ervations, self-monitoring and physiological assessment. Reflecting re cent theoretical and clinical advances in the study of childhood inter nalizing disorders, we also explore laboratory-based measures and fami ly assessment measures. Particular attention is given to psychometric issues and developmental sensitivity in our discussion of these assess ment procedures. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.