Validity of the Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale in Singaporean children

Abstract

Aim: This study examined validity of the Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS) and its clinical utility as an assessment tool in a Singapore clinical sample. It also examined correlates between the CY-BOCS and other measures of psychological impairment, anxiety and depression. Sample: A parent—child paired sample of 58 children/ adolescents (8–18 years old) diagnosed with OCD and 60 of their parents were recruited from the Child Guidance Clinic. All children and adolescents had a principal diagnosis of OCD according to DSM-IV-TR criteria. Instruments: The CY-BOCS, the Child Behaviour Checklist, the Computerised Diagnostic Interview Schedule for children were completed by the parents. The Multidimensional Anxiety Scale fir children and the Asian Children Depression Scale were administered to the children. In addition, the Clinical Global Impression-Severity Scale was completed by the clinician. Results: Results showed that the CY-BOCS demonstrated good convergent validity with a measure of global psychological impairment, and reasonable divergent validity with measures of anxiety and depression. The obsession and compulsion severity scales of the CY-BOCS demonstrated good to excellent internal reliability and showed strongly positive and statistically significant correlations with relevant variables in conceptually correct directions. The CY-BOCS is a clinically useful tool for assessment of the degree of impairment and stress in Singaporean child and adolescent patients diagnosed as sufferingfrom Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Keywords:

• obsessive compulsive disorder
• CY-BOCS
• validity
• internal reliability
• correlations