Parent assessment of psychological and behavioral functioning following pediatric acquired brain injury

Objective: Compare the measured prevalence rate of psychopathology and behavior disorders in 29 chil-dren with acquired brain injuries using four parent-report instruments. Method: Two questionnaires, the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Personality Inventory for Chil-dren (PIC-R) and two interview measures, the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents (DICA-R) and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS), were completed following injury or diagnosis. Results: The DICA-R identified the highest prevalence of anxiety disorders and acting-out behaviors, whereas the CBCL identified the lowest prevalence. Opposite results were found within the domain of at-tentional problems. Interview measures were more concordant for global psychological impairment than were questionnaires. Discussion: Discordant findings across measures are discussed in terms of type of disorder, classification model, response format, item characteristics, and scaling. Key words: assessment; validity; pediatric; psychopathology; acquired brain injury; parent-report; CBCL; PIC-R; DICA-R; VABS. The negative impact of stressful or traumatic events on the psychological well-being of children is in-creasingly evident. A growing body of literature indicates that children with chronic illness or ac-quired brain injury (ABI) are at increased risk for de-veloping emotional and behavioral problems and for exhibiting impairments in adaptive behavio