Disruptive Behavior Disorders in Children: Treatment-Focused Assessment

Children and adolescents deemed "out of control" by parents and educators are among the most commonly referred for professional care. Increased professional and public interest in these children has sparked a proliferation of research focusing on etiologic, diagnostic, and research issues of disruptive behavior disorders. Accordingly, the empirical knowledge base has grown rapidly in richness and complexity. Bringing clinical practice up to date with these many new advances in an unusually accessible format, DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR DISORDERS IN CHILDREN presents a practical, psychometrically sound, treatment-relevant method of assessment that reflects the state of the art. The book opens with detailed descriptions of the Disruptive Behavior Disorders that encompass the DSM-III-R subtypes of Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Conduct and Oppositional Defiant Disorders. For easy reference, the following four chapters separately cover interviews, evaluation, treatment, and integrating assessment. Offering valuable explication of the interview process, one chapter covers the parent-child interview, clinical interview, and the categories and rationale for inclusion. Evaluation procedures are discussed in a chapter that evaluates parent, family, and teacher questionnaires, as well as self-report, laboratory measurements, and direct observation. The chapter on treatment options addresses such topics as education, pharmacological management, parent training, cognitive-behavioral self-control training, and family systems therapy. Using illustrative case examples, the chapter on integrating assessment outlines a functional assessment protocol, and describes how to: establish and monitor drug efficacy; select and implement psychosocial interventions; and choose appropriate educational interventions.

Providing the interdisciplinary professional community with proven, practical, and useful assessment strategies for these too commonly encountered problems, DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR DISORDERS IN CHILDREN is an invaluable resource for a wide array of practitioners. With its user-friendly format, clinicians who provide services to children and adolescents who suffer from these disorders will want to keep it close at hand.