Abstract

Empirically validated techniques to reliably assess for bipolar disorder in children and adolescents are crucial toward timely and effective treatment efforts. Rating scales and behavior checklists are often considered a valuable alternative to the semi-structured interview, as they can provide quantified information regarding symptom experience, and values can be compared to both age and gender norms as a supplement to clinical expertise (Kahana, Youngstrom, Findling, & Calabrese, 2003). Converse to semistructured interviews, rating scales are brief and time efficient, inexpensive, simple to administer, require much less training to deliver and interpret, and can be utilized for screening purpose by a wide variety of practitioners (Kahana et al.). For these reasons, high quality and psychometrically sound rating scale measures that address the specific assessment issues for pediatric bipolar disorder, and possess the advantages listed above, would have valuable clinical utility. However, while a number of promising such measures do exist and have been subjected to some psychometric study, definitively rigorous instruments meeting these qualifications are deficient within the literature overall (Kahana et al.). To address this missing aspect within the literature as a whole, an experimental version of the Mood and Behavior Rating Scale for Youth – Parent Form (MBRSY-PF) has been developed by Perry and Bard in 2005. The measure holds promise in addressing the sparseness in both number and rigor of measures currently detailed within the literature, though the psychometrics of the MBRSY-PF have not yet been studied formally. The purpose of the research study that follows will be to conduct a three-level investigation of the structural validity of the MBRSY-PF as a parent informant questionnaire to assess for bipolar disorder in children and adolescents.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Manic-depressive illness in children--Diagnosis; Manic-depressive illness in adolescence--Diagnosis; Psychological tests--Evaluation; Psychometrics

Publication Date

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Department, Program, or Center

Department of Psychology (CLA)

Advisor

Lukomski, Jennifer

Advisor/Committee Member

Merydith, Scott

Comments

Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works. Physical copy available through RIT's The Wallace Library at: RC516 .N46 2008

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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