Test-retest reliability of the Chinese version of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children-Version 4 (DISC-IV).

Background: Despite the huge youth population, there is a lack of psychiatric diagnostic instruments with reported psychometric properties in Chinese. This study reports the development of the Chinese version of DISC-IV and examines its test-retest reliability.

Method: Seventy-eight parents and 79 youths (mean age 13.1 years) attending child psychiatric clinics were interviewed twice using the Chinese DISC-IV (Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children-IV) about 22 days apart.

Results: The kappa coefficients were good to excellent for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) (both youth (Y) and parent (P) versions), major depressive disorder (MDD) (P), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (P); fair for anxiety disorder (P), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) (P, Y), MDD (Y); but poor for anxiety disorder (Y) and ADHD (Y). Parent informants had better test-retest reliability than youth informants.

Conclusions: The Chinese DISC-IV had comparable test-retest reliability with the original English version.