Prediction Of Clinical Diagnosis From A Brief Parent Report: Validation of Behavioral Summary Scales

Abstract

Objective: The current study examined the ability of the Behavioral Summary, which is the short form of the Personality Inventory for Children, second edition (PIC-2) as a tool for differentiating behavioral disorders of children. The Behavioral Summary includes 96 items, structured into eight short adjustment scales. Method: A sample of 444 referred children; age 3-18 participated in this study. They were independently rated as fitting into one of five diagnostic groups prior to completing the measure. Groups included: Academic Cognitive Difficulties, Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Conduct Disorder (CD) and Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). A discriminant function analysis and multivariate pairwise comparison determined which scales contributed to the discrimination of the five diagnostic groups. Results: Overall 55.5% of cases were correctly classified, in the pairwise comparison 66.7% up to 87.4% of cases were correctly classified. The Behavioral Summary demonstrated good differentiation between Academic Cognitive Difficulties and any other diagnostic group and between externalizing disorders and PDD. Weaker results were found for the discrimination of ODD and CD. Conclusion: The Behavioral Summary is a tool for monitoring treatment progress and it may be utilized as a quick and supportive tool for clinicians in the fine discrimination of difficult to distinguish disorders.