Study II: Concurrent validity of the DSM-III-R Children's Interview for Psychiatric Syndromes (ChIPS)

Objective: To test the concurrent validity of the Diagnostic and Statistica l Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., revised) (DSM-III-R) revised Childre n's Interview for Psychiatric Syndromes (ChIPS). Method: In this study, the DSM-III-R revised ChIPS, the DSM-III-R revised D iagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents (DICA-R-C), and clinicians ' diagnoses were compared in 71 inpatients and outpatients 6 to 13 years of age using a standard kappa coefficient or a rare kappa coefficient and per centage agreement. Results: High levels of agreement mere found between the two interviews on all 14 syndromes analyzed (p < 0.05). ChIPS and DICA also had high levels o f agreement with clinicians' diagnoses. When DSM-III-R revised ChIPS and DI CA-R-C results were discrepant, ChIPS results were somewhat more likely tha n DICA-R-C results (48% versus 38%) to agree with the clinician's diagnoses . Conclusion: ChIPS appears to be a valid assessment for screening children i n inpatient and outpatient mental health facilities. It has the added benef it of being brief, with average administration time of 46 minutes for an in patient sample and 46 minutes for an outpatient sample.