Parent-child agreement in the assessment of obsessive-compulsive disorder

The purpose of the current study was to extend research regarding parent-child agreement in the assessment of anxiety disorders to include youth with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Ninety-three children and adolescents with OCD (50 female, 43 male), ages 6 to 17 years, and their parents were administered the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Children. Data were obtained from a review of records of children and their parents seeking services from a university-based research and treatment clinic. Consistent with previous research on the assessment of anxiety disorders in youth, results indicated that parent-child agreement in the assessment of OCD is relatively poor at both the diagnostic and symptom levels. Our findings highlight the importance of multiple informant diagnostic systems in assessing childhood OCD.