Clinical assessment of child and adolescent personality and behaviour by Frick, Barry, & Kamphaus (fourth edition) – Chapter 3 summary

Using a developmental approach has several implications for the assessment process:

1. Developmental norms
   This states that there are certain developmental norms (e.g. bedwetting at age 3 is normal while it is not at age 12) and this should be taken into account.
2. Developmental processes
   There should be a process-oriented approach (i.e. interactions of interrelated maturation processes should be taken into account). The transactional nature of behavioural patterns needs to be assessed and understood. This requires equifinality and multifinality to be taken into account, as well as the developmental task of a stage.
3. Stability and continuity
   It is important to assess whether something is stable (e.g. trait) and whether there is continuity over time (e.g. level of fear remaining the same over time). The presenting symptoms may change while the underlying cause (e.g. fear) remains the same.
4. Situational stability
   It needs to be assessed whether behaviour is stable across settings. Individual behaviours (i.e. symptoms) may show a high level of specificity but the broader construct (i.e. diagnosis) may show greater consistency across situations.
5. Comorbidity
   The comorbidity of disorders needs to be taken into account. Assessment should thus be comprehensive and cover multiple areas of functioning.

There are several practical implications for assessment:

• A clinician needs to have knowledge of several areas of psychological research.
• Children’s behaviours and emotions must be understood within a developmental context.
• Assessment needs to be based on multiple sources of information that assesses a child’s functioning in multiple contexts as a child’s behaviour is heavily dependent on the context.
• Assessment of children needs to be comprehensive to take comorbidity into account.