ARTICLES
A DSM-IV–Referenced, Adolescent Self-Report Rating Scale

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ABSTRACT

Objective

To examine the reliability and validity of the Youth's Inventory-4 (YI-4), a DSM-IV–referenced self-report rating scale.

Method

Youths (N = 239) aged between 11 and 18 years who were clinically evaluated between 1996 and 1999 completed the YI-4, and 79% completed at least one additional self-report. Parents and teachers completed a companion measure. A second sample (N = 47) was retested 2 weeks after an initial evaluation.

Results

The YI-4 demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (α values = .66—.87) and test-retest reliability (r values = 0.54–0.92), convergent and to lesser extent divergent validity with other self-report measures, and discriminant validity by differentiating children with and without diagnosed attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, substance use, generalized anxiety disorder, or major depressive disorder. Youth–parent (r values = 0.05–0.50) and youth–teacher (r values < 0.18) agreement was generally modest.

Conclusions

These findings provide preliminary support for the clinical utility of the YI-4 for symptom assessment in referred youths.

Section snippets

Clinic Sample.

The clinic sample consisted of consecutive referrals to a child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient service from 1996 to 1999. The clinic was based in a university teaching hospital on Long Island, New York. Subjects were 239 youths between 11 and 18 years old (mean = 13.9 ± 1.8), of whom 175 were males and 64 were females, and included 134 youths who were described in a preliminary investigation (Gadow and Sprafkin, 1999). The ethnic distribution was white (88.5%), African American (6.0%),

Demographic Characteristics

Age was only minimally correlated (r < 0.20) with YI-4 Symptom Severity scores, with the exception of the Substance Use (r = 0.40, p < .0001) and Bipolar categories (r = −0.35, p < .05). (Data for Bipolar symptoms were available for only 46 youths.) Similarly, neither IQ (r < 0.20) nor socioeconomic status (r < 0.15) was associated with YI-4 scores, with the exception of socioeconomic status and Bipolar symptoms (r = 0.37, p < .05). Gender differences were significant (p < .05) for only one

DISCUSSION

The findings from the current study lend support to the reliability and validity of the YI-4 as a measure of DSM-IV symptoms in adolescents. It demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency and test-retest reliability, and obtained values were comparable with other self-report measures, e.g., structured psychiatric interviews (Hodges et al., 1990;Reich, 2000;Shaffer et al., 2000), a DSM-referenced rating scale (Boyle et al., 1993a), and rating scales derived from multivariate statistical

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