The Reliability and Validity of the Dominic Interactive: A Computerized Child Report Instrument for Mental Health Problems

Children and youths’ self-report of mental health problems is considered essential but complicated.

This study examines the psychometric properties of the Dominic Interactive, a computerized DSM-IV based self-report questionnaire and explores informant correspondence.

The Dominic Interactive was administered to 214 Dutch children, 6–11 year old, 122 attended special education schools and
92 children attended public schools. Within 2 weeks 155 children were reassessed. Parents of 211 children completed a paper
version of the Dominic Interactive.

The findings showed moderate to good internal consistency and test-retest reliability, although stability increased with age.
Factor structure concerning generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder displayed ambiguous results. Comparing
special education with public school children revealed that both parents and children in special education reported significantly
more problems on almost all scales. The results on informant correspondence revealed that discrepancies in reports were not
consistent across individual pairs; they were due to a few extreme cases. Eliminating these cases increased the agreement
in reports.

Although more research is needed to determine the value of the Dominic Interactive, the Dominic Interactive has the potential
to contribute with its unique features to the existing self-report instruments for screening and assessing child mental health.