A Preliminary Study of the Influences on Response Stability of the Interactive Dominic/Terry Questionnaire

Abstract

The Dominic Interactive is a pictorial structured child interview screener with features to address developmental issues that are often problematic for young informants. It includes items depicting nonsymptomatic activities as well as activities demonstrating DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) symptoms of several childhood disorders. We examined the reliability of the Interactive Dominic/Terry, as well as potential factors influencing response stability, with a sample of 59 inpatient adolescents. Response stability refers to the tendency for the same response to be given over time. Analyses yielded good to excellent reliability for the majority of the scales. Response stability was similar regardless of age, gender, or race. Results also suggested an inverse relationship between Verbal IQ and rate of response change. Overall, these preliminary results suggest that this instrument is suitable for children and adolescents of different racial backgrounds, although the impact of intelligence requires further investigation.