Abstract
The present study was designed to gather validity data on the Devereux Scales of Mental Disorders (DSMD) for distinguishing among children and adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; N = 32), Conduct Disorder (CD; N = 34), or no clinical diagnosis (NC; N = 65). Three types of indicators were compared: (a) DSMD scale, composite, and total scores, (b) the number of ADHD or CD-related items endorsed, and (c) diagnostic efficiency statistics (e.g., sensitivity, positive and negative predictive power). The clinical groups did not differ significantly from each other, but both were significantly higher than the NC group on all DSMD scales. Moreover, there were significant differences between the ADHD and the CD groups on the number of respective ADHD and CD-related items endorsed. A cut-off of seven to eight items yielded the best discrimination between the two diagnostic groups. Diagnostic efficiency statistics indicate that the DSMD may be effective at differentiating between similar disruptive behavior disorders.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Achenbach, T. M. (1991a).'Comorbidity' in child and adolescent psychiatry: Categorical and quantitative perspectives. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 1, 271-278.
Achenbach, T. M. (1991b).Manual for the Teacher's Report Form and 1991 profile. Burlington: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.
American Psychiatric Association (1994).The diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. (4th ed.). Washington, D.C.: Author.
Anderson, J. C., Williams, S., McGee, R., & Silva, P. A. (1987).DSM-III disorders in preadolescent children. Archives of General Psychiatry, 44, 69-76.
Balogh, D. W., & Merritt, R. D. (1996).Using diagnostic efficiency statistics to evaluate the concurrent validity of the Perceptual Aberration Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 66, 321-336.
Barkley, R. A. (1988).Child behavior rating scales and checklists. In M. Rutter, A. H. Tuma, & I. S. Lann (Eds.), Assessment and diagnosis in child psychopathology (pp. 113-155). New York: Guilford Press.
Barkley, R. A. (1998).Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A handbook for diagnosis and treatment (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford.
Barkley, R. A. (1996).Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In E. J. Mash & R. A. Barkley (Eds.), Child psychopathology (pp. 63-112). New York: Guilford.
Barkley, R. A. (1997).Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: Constructing a unifying theory of ADHD. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 65-94.
Biederman, J., Faraone, S. V., Doyle, A., Lehman, B. K., Kraus, I., Perrin, J., & Tsuang, M. T. (1993).Convergence of the Child Behavior Checklist with structured-interview-based psychiatric diagnoses of ADHD children with and without comorbidity. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 34, 1241-1251.
Boan, C., & Riccio, C. (1995).A review of the Devereux Scales of Mental Disorders. Child Assessment News, 5, 7-8.
Boyle, M. H., Offord, D. R., Racine, Y. A., Szatmari, P., Sanford, M., & Fleming, J. E. (1997).Adequacy of interviews vs checklists for classifying childhood psychiatric disorder based on parent reports. Archives of General Psychiatry, 54, 793-799.
Bussing, R., Schuhmann, E., Belin, T. R., Widawski, M., & Perviewn, A. (1998).Diagnostic utility of two commonly used ADHD screening measures among special education students. Journal of the Amerian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 37, 74-82.
Cantwell, D. P. (1996).Attention deficit disorder: A review of the past 10 years. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 35, 978-987.
Chen, W. J., Faraone, S. V., Biederman, J., & Tsuang, M. T. (1994).Diagnostic accuracy of the Child Behavior Checklist Scales for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A receiver-operating characteristic analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62, 1017-1025.
Doyle, A., Ostrander, R., Skare, S., Crosby, R. D., & August, G. J. (1997).Convergent and criterion-related validity of the Behavior Assessment System for Children—Parent Rating Scale. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 26, 276-284.
Eiraldi, R. B., Power, T. J., Karustis, J. L., & Goldstein, S. G. (2000).Assessing ADHD and comorbid disorders in children: The Child Behavior Checklist and the Devereux Scales of Mental Disorders. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 1, 3-16.
Elwood, R. W. (1993).Psychological tests and clinical discriminations: Beginning to address the base rate problem. Clinical Psychology Review, 13, 409-419.
Faraone, S. V., Biederman, J., Sprich-Buckminster, S., Chen, W., & Tsuang, M. T. (1993).Efficiency of diagnostic criteria for attention deficit disorder: Toward an empirical approach to designing and validating diagnostic algorithms. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 32, 166-174.
Frick, P. J., Strauss, C. C., Lahey, B. B., & Christ, M. G. (1993).Behavior disorders of children. In P. B. Sutker & H. E. Adams (Eds.), Comprehensive handbook of psychopathology (2nd edition). NY: Plenum.
Glaros, A. G., & Kline, R. B. (1988).Understanding the accuracy of tests with cutting scores: The sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value model. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 44, 1013-1023.
Harris, J., Tyre, C., & Wilkinson, C. (1993).Using the Child Behavior Checklist in ordinary primary schools. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 63, 245-260.
Hinshaw, S. P. (1987).On the distinction between attentional deficits/hyperactivity and conduct problems/aggression in child psychopathology. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 443-463.
Hinshaw, S. P., & Anderson, C. A. (1996).Conduct and oppositional defiant disorders. In E. J. Mash & R. A. Barkley (Eds.), Child psychopathology (pp. 113-149). New York: Guilford.
Jensen, R. S., Martin, D., & Cantwell, D. P. (1997).Comorbidity in ADHD: Implications for research, practice and DSM-V. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 1065-1079.
Kamphaus, R. W., & Frick, P. J. (1996).Clinical assessment of child and adolescent personality and behavior. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Kazdin, A. E. (1995).Conduct disorders in childhood and adolescence (2nd edition). In A. E. Kazdin (Series Ed.), Developmental clinical psychology and psychiatry series: Vol. 9. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Kelly, T. P., & McArdle, P. (1997).Using the Achenbach Child Behaviour Checklist in the differential diagnosis of disruptive behaviour disorders. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 14, 136-138.
Kessel, J. B., & Zimmerman, M. (1993).Reporting errors in studies of the diagnostic performance of self-administered questionnaires: Extent of the problem, recommendations for standardized presentation of results, and implications for the peer review process. Psychological Assessment, 5, 395-399.
Kline, R. B. (1988).Methodological considerations in evaluation of diagnosis-parent checklist convergence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 16, 289-298.
Landau, S., Milich, R., & Widiger, T. A. (1991).Predictive power methods may be more helpful for making a diagnosis than sensitivity and specificity. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychpharmacology, 1, 343-351.
LeBuffe, P. A., Naglieri, J. A.,& Pfeiffer, S. I. (1996).The Devereux Scales of Mental Disorders Computerized Scoring Assistant [Computer software]. San Antonio: The Psychological Corporation.
McDermott, P. A. (1996).A nationwide study of developmental and gender prevalence for psychopathology in childhood and adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 24, 53-66.
Munoz-Millan, R. J., & Casteel, C. R. (1989).Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: Recent literature. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 40, 699-707.
Naglieri, J. A. & Gottling, S. H. (1995).Use of the Teacher Report Form and the Devereux Behavior Rating Scale—School Form with learning disordered/emotionally disordered students. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 24, 71-76.
Naglieri, J. A., LeBuffe, P. A., & Bardos, A. N. (1995).Discriminant validity of the Devereux Behavior Rating Scale—School Form for students with serious emotional disturbance. School Psychology Review, 24, 104-111.
Naglieri, J. A., LeBuffe, P. A., & Pfeiffer, S. I. (1994). Devereux Scales of Mental Disorders. San Antonio: The Psychological Corporation.
Offord, D. R., Boyle, M. H., Szatmari, P., Rae-Grant, N. I., Links, P. S., Cadman, D. T., Byles, J. A., Crawford, J. W., Blum, H. M., Byrne, C., Thomas, H., & Woodward, C. A. (1987). Ontairio child health study II: Six month prevalence of disorder and rates of service utilization. Archives of General Psychiatry, 44, 832-836.
Skodol, A., Rosnick, L., Kellman, D., Oldham, J., & Hyler, S. (1988).Validating structured DSM-III-R personality disorder assessments with longitudinal data. American Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 1297-1299.
Spitzer, R. (1983).Psychiatric diagnosis: Are clinicians still necessary? Comprehensive Psychiatry, 24, 399-411.
Taylor, E. (1985).Syndromes of overactivity and attention deficit. In M. Rutter & L. Hersov (Eds.) Child and adolescent psychiatry (2nd edition). Oxford: Blackwell Scientific.
Waldman, I. D., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (1991).Diagnostic efficiency of symptoms for oppositional defiant disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59, 732-738.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Smith, S.R., Wingenfeld, S.A., Hilsenroth, M.J. et al. The Use of the Devereux Scales of Mental Disorders in the Assessment of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Conduct Disorder. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment 22, 237–255 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007510216543
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007510216543