Study III: Development and concurrent validity of the Children's Interview for Psychiatric Syndromes - Parent version (P-ChIPS)

Objective: To assess concurrent validity for the newly developed parent version of the Children's Interview for Psychiatric Syndromes (P-ChIPS). Method: ChIPS and P-ChIPS were administered to 36 children 6 to 13 years of age and their parents. P-ChIPS results were compared with clinicians' diagnoses for 21 of those children. Either a standard or rare kappa coefficient and percentage agreement were used to assess concordance. Questions on P-ChIPS have a one-to-one correspondence with questions on the ChIPS, with the only change being from first to third person (e.g. "Have you ever..." is replaced by "Have your child ever..."). Results: There were moderate levels of agreement between the parent and child versions of the instrument, consistent with other reports of parent and child concordance on structured interviews in the literature. Likewise, there were moderate levels of agreement between the parent interview and clinician diagnoses, again consistent with other reports of parent and clinician concordance in the literature. Sensitivity averaged 87% across diagnostic categories, and average specificity was 76%. Conclusion: P-ChIPS has adequate psychometric properties for use in clinical settings.