IMPLICATIONS OF MULTIAXIAL EMPIRICALLY BASED ASSESSMENT FOR BEHAVIOR-THERAPY WITH CHILDREN

Comprehensive assessment of children requires multiple sources, such as parents, teachers, clinicians, observers, and children themselves. Agreement is limited by situational variations in children's behavior and by informant differences. Multiaxial empirically based assessment (MEBA) employs multiple sources relevant to most children. Parallel instruments obtain data from parents, teachers, self-reports, direct observations, and clinical interviews in terms of empirically derived syndromes. Children are compared with normative samples of peers. Multisource data can be coordinated via a cross-informant computer program, taxonomic decision tree, multisource composite scores, and selective weighting. MEBA can facilitate behavior therapy by documenting problems reported by different informants; by identifying problems as cross-situationally consistent or inconsistent; by aggregating problems in terms of empirically derived syndromes scorable by multiple informants; by concisely communicating and linking assessment with nosological and administrative criteria and with previous knowledge; and by indicating whether reported functioning is in the clinical versus normal range at pre- and posttreatment.