The Dominic-R: a pictorial interview for 6- to 11-year-old children

To review the Dominic-R and the Terry questionnaires, respectively, for white and African-American children, both DSM-III-R-based, and more recent DSM-IV-based computerized versions.

Five papers describing the development, content, validation studies, and establishment of the diagnostic cutpoints of these instruments are reviewed. The instruments are pictorial, fully structured, and designed to assess mental disorders in children 6 to 11 years of age. Symptom descriptions complement the visual stimulus, providing better information-processing than visual or auditory stimuli alone. Cognitive immaturity of young children bars frequency, duration, and age-of-onset measurements, restricting correspondence with DSM criteria. DSM-IV (computerized versions) and DSM-III-R (paper versions) disorders being assessed include specific (simple) phobias, separation anxiety, generalized anxiety (overanxious), depression/dysthymia, attention-deficit hyperactivity, oppositional defiant, and conduct disorder.

Test-retest reliability of symptoms and symptom scores and criterion validity against clinical judgment support the visual-auditory combination of stimuli to assess child mental health.

Intended for clinical, epidemiological, and screening purposes, these instruments are short and simple. Although it only approximates DSM-III-R and DSM-IV criteria, the pictorial format permits young children to be reliable informants about their mental health.