Reliability and Validity of the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Children and Adolescents in Japan

This study investigated the inter-rater agreement, test-retest reliability, and convergence validity of the Japanese-translated Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule (ADIS) for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV). The ADIS was administered to 71 children and adolescents (53.52% females, M_age = 10.70 years, SD = 2.05) and their parents, with a two-month test-retest interval. Participants also completed questionnaires on anxiety and depression. Test-retest reliability was good for the presence or absence of a diagnosis and clinical significance ratings for all diagnoses. Inter-rater reliability was good to excellent. Strong convergent validity was observed for the separation anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, dysthymia, and depression domains in both the child- and parent-reported measures. However, correlations with parent-reported social phobia and specific phobia were not statistically significant. These results support moderate stability across time, consistent diagnostic results among independent diagnosticians, and convergent validity of the Japanese version of the ADIS for the DSM-IV.