Assessment of psychopathology in 2- to 5-year-olds: Applying the Infant-Toddler Social Emotional Assessment

The information provided by parents is indispensable for the early identification of psychopathology; for this reason, developmentally appropriate, reliable, and valid questionnaires are needed to gather their information. This study was designed to examine the utility of the Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (ITSEA), a parent-report questionnaire covering a wide range of behavior and emotional problems and competencies, in preschoolers referred for child psychiatric evaluation. The fathers and mothers of 85 children (23.2% girls; age 15-57 months) with autism spectrum, externalizing, or internalizing disorders completed the ITSEA, the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/2-3 and 4-18 versions), and the child domain of the Parenting Stress Index (PSI). The ITSEA showed good interrater reliability between parents, and validity was supported by significant correlations with corresponding CBCl and PSI domains. Evidence supporting the validity of the ITSEA for psychopathology was mixed across scales, with good diagnostic accuracy at the level of the broader psychiatric syndromes being achieved by the combination of subscales within the Externalizing, Internalizing, and Competence domains. The value of the ITSEA lies in the ability to systematically evaluate a wide range of problem behaviors and competencies. The ITSEA may be useful to create profiles of children's functioning in preschoolers referred for psychiatric assessment.