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Exploring the hand test with medically ill children and adolescents
Steven R Smith1, Mark A Blais, Madhuri Vangala
1Counseling, Clinical, & School Psychology Program, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. ssmith@education.ucsb.edu
Journal of Personality Assessment
|August 9, 2005
Summary
The Hand Test (HT) effectively differentiates between medically ill children and those with psychological disturbance. This performance-based assessment provides valuable insights beyond standard behavior ratings for pediatric patients.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Pediatric Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Pediatric psychologists assess youth with chronic/acute medical illnesses.
- The Hand Test (HT) is a performance-based measure.
- Its utility with pediatric medical patients requires exploration.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the use of the Hand Test (HT) with pediatric medical patients.
- To determine if the HT can differentiate between medically ill youth and psychiatrically disturbed youth.
- To assess the incremental validity of the HT over behavior ratings.
Main Methods:
- Administered the Hand Test (HT) to medical inpatients (n=27) and psychiatric outpatients (n=24).
- Utilized a self-report measure and a parent-report behavior rating scale alongside the HT.
- Employed hierarchical logistic regression to analyze data.
Main Results:
- The psychiatric group scored higher on HT Aggression, Withdrawal, and Pathological scores.
- HT Aggression (d=0.90) and Pathological (d=0.80) scores robustly differentiated groups.
- The HT demonstrated incremental validity over behavior ratings in classifying clinical groups.
Conclusions:
- The Hand Test (HT) is a valuable tool for assessing psychological functioning in pediatric patients.
- The HT provides important information to differentiate medically ill children from those with psychological disturbance.
- The HT's Aggression and Pathological scores are key differentiators between these groups.