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Comparative Study
. 2017 Mar;24(2):210-221.
doi: 10.1177/1073191115604353. Epub 2016 Jul 28.

Assessment Practices of Child Clinicians

Jonathan R Cook  1 , Estee M Hausman  2 , Amanda Jensen-Doss  3 , Kristin M Hawley  2
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Assessment Practices of Child Clinicians

Jonathan R Cook et al. Assessment. 2017 Mar.

Abstract

Assessment is an integral component of treatment. However, prior surveys indicate clinicians may not use standardized assessment strategies. We surveyed 1,510 clinicians and used multivariate analysis of variance to explore group differences in specific measure use. Clinicians used unstandardized measures more frequently than standardized measures, although psychologists used standardized measures more frequently than nonpsychologists. We also used latent profile analysis to classify clinicians based on their overall approach to assessment and examined associations between clinician-level variables and assessment class or profile membership. A four-profile model best fit the data. The largest profile consisted of clinicians who primarily used unstandardized assessments (76.7%), followed by broad-spectrum assessors who regularly use both standardized and unstandardized assessment (11.9%), and two smaller profiles of minimal (6.0%) and selective assessors (5.5%). Compared with broad-spectrum assessors, unstandardized and minimal assessors were less likely to report having adequate standardized measures training. Implications for clinical practice and training are discussed.

Keywords: assessment; clinician survey; standardized measures.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Frequency of assessment use based on the most likely latent profile membership in the four-profile solution. Note. IBO = informal behavioral observation; UCI = unstructured clinical interview; IME = informal mental status exam; SCL = standardized checklists; FCR = formal clinician ratings; SDI = standardized diagnostic interviews; FME = formal mental status exams; FOC = formal observational coding. Frequency of assessment measured using a 5-point Likert-type scale where: 1 = never or almost never; 2 = rarely; 3 = sometimes; 4 = often; 5 = all or most of the time.
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