Abstract
Objective:
The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version-Turkish Version (K-SADS-PL-T).
Method:
Fifty two children and adolescents between ages 6 to 16 years were assessed both according to DSM-Iv diagnostic criteria and K-SADS-PL-T. Consistency between the DSM- IV criteria diagnoses and the K-SADS-PL-T diagnoses was considered as the measure of validity of K- SADS-PL-T. Interrater reliabilites were assessed in randomly selected 20 participants. In addition, randomly selected 20 other participants were interviewed with K-SADS-PL-T 4 weeks after the first interview to evaluate test-retest reliability.
Results:
Validity of K-SADS-PL-T was found to be excellent for elimination disorders, good for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and tic disorders, fair for affective disorders, anxiety disorders and oppositional defiant disorder. Interrater reliability was observed to be excellent for elimination disorders and tic disorders, good for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and anxiety disorders. Test-retest reliability was observed to be excellent for elimination disorders, tic disorders, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and anxiety disorders.
Discussion:
The results of this study showed that the K-SADS-PL-T is an effective instrument for diagnosing major childhood psychiatric disorders. It will be valuable to examine the validity and reliability of the K-SADS-PL-T in larger samples, especially in adolescents.
Keywords: K-SADS-PL-T, validity, reliability.
