Test-usage in German child and adolescent psychiatry:: report on a survey

92 inpatient and outpatient child and adolescent psychiatric institutions all over Germany were surveyed On practice and attitude towards psychological tests. Leading psychologists were Contacted by mail and given a 15 item questionnaire. All institutions reported keeping at least a small test-inventory and using psychological tests in diagnostics, Half of the clinics carried out individual tests obligatory in the routine, Additionally, One third applied self-constructed instruments, which in the minority of cases had been psychometrically investigated or published, Computer-aided testing was established in one third of the institutions. Colleagues, test-compendia; scientific journals and the internet are quite often consulted for test-information. intelligence measures are the most frequently administred test in child and adolescent psychiatry, while structured interviews are applied rarely. Among the highly frequent used individual tests were the Wechsler-Intelligence-Scales for children and adults, the CFT-scales, the projective Scene-test and the d2-attention endurance test. One forth of the surveyed clinics reported refusal of individual or groups of tests, including projective and cognitive assessments. Thereby, ethic aspects were never mentioned as a reason for rejection, A range of diagnosticians reported to miss adequate measures for diverse constructs, e.g. learning disabilities, Furthermore, new norms and up-dates for regularly used instruments were often demanded. Some single survey-results also give reason for critically reviewing aspects of test-usage in German child and adolescent psychiatry.