Abstract
Purpose
To describe and validate the ‘DAWBA bands’. These are novel ordered-categorical measures of child mental health, based on the structured sections of the Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA).
Methods
We developed computer algorithms to generate parent, teacher, child and multi-informant DAWBA bands for individual disorders and for groups of disorder (e.g. ‘any emotional disorder’). The top two (out of 6) levels of the DAWBA bands were used as computer-generated DAWBA diagnoses. We validated these DAWBA bands in 7,912 British children (7–19 years) and 1,364 Norwegian children (11–13 years), using clinician-rated DAWBA diagnoses as a gold standard.
Results
In general, the prevalence of clinician-rated diagnosis increased monotonically across all levels of the DAWBA bands, and also showed a dose–response association with service use and risk factors. The prevalence estimates of the computer-generated DAWBA diagnoses were of roughly comparable magnitude to the prevalence estimates from the clinician-generated diagnoses, but the estimates were not always very close. In contrast, the estimated effect sizes, significance levels and substantive conclusions regarding risk factor associations were very similar or identical. The multi-informant and parent DAWBA bands performed especially well in these regards.
Conclusion
Computer-generated DAWBA bands avoid the cost and delay occasioned by clinical rating. They may, therefore, sometimes provide a useful alternative to clinician-rated diagnoses, when studying associations with risk factors, generating rough prevalence estimates or implementing routine mental health screening.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Angold A (2002) Diagnostic interviews with parents and children. In: Rutter M, Taylor EA (eds) Child and adolescent psychiatry. Blackwell, Oxford
Breslau N (1987) Inquiring about the bizarre: false positives in Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC) ascertainment of obsessions, compulsions, and psychotic symptoms. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 26(5):639–644
Goodman R, Scott S (1997) Child psychiatry. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford
Goodman R et al (1996) Rating child psychiatric caseness from detailed case histories. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 37(4):369–379
Ford T, Goodman R, Meltzer H (2003) The British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey 1999: the prevalence of DSM-IV disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 42(10):1203–1211
Goodman R et al (2000) The development and well-being assessment: description and initial validation of an integrated assessment of child and adolescent psychopathology. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 41(5):645–655
Angold A (1989) Structured assessments of psychopathology in children and adolescents. In: Thompson C (ed) The instruments of psychiatric research. Wiley, New York
Loeber R et al (1991) Differences and similarities between children, mothers, and teachers as informants on disruptive child behavior. J Abnorm Child Psychol 19(1):75–95
American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV). American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC
WHO (1993) The ICD-10 classification of mental and behavioural disorders; diagnostic criteria for research. World Health Organisation, Geneva
Meltzer H et al (2003) Persistence, onset, risk factors and outcomes of childhood mental disorders. The Stationery Office, London
Heiervang E et al (2007) Psychiatric disorders in Norwegian 8- to 10-year-olds: an epidemiological survey of prevalence, risk factors, and service use. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 46(4):438–447
Meltzer H et al (2000) Mental health of children and adolescents in Great Britain. The Stationery Office, London
Heiervang E, Goodman R (2010) Advantages and limitations of web-based surveys: evidence from a child mental health survey. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol
Green H et al (2005) Mental health of children and young people in Great Britain, 2004. MacMillan, Palgrave
Parry-Langdon N (2008) Three years on: survey of the development and emotional well-being of children and young people. Office for National Statistics, Cardiff
Heiervang E, Goodman A, Goodman R (2008) The Nordic advantage in child mental health: separating health differences from reporting style in a cross-cultural comparison of psychopathology. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 49(6):678–685
Ford T et al (2008) Predictors of service use for mental health problems among British schoolchildren. Child Adolesc Ment Health 13(1):32–40
Goldberg DP, Williams P (1998) A user’s guide to the General Health Questionnaire. NFER-Nelson, Windsor
Conflict of interest statement
AG and RG are directors and RG is the owner of Youthinmind, which provides no-cost and low-cost software and web sites related to the DAWBA. SC consulted to Youthinmind in the development of the DAWBA bands. EH is the director and owner of Careahead, which provides teaching and supervision to clinics on the use of the DAWBA. EH and RG’s opportunities to charge for clinical rating of the DAWBA may be reduced by the findings of this paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Goodman, A., Heiervang, E., Collishaw, S. et al. The ‘DAWBA bands’ as an ordered-categorical measure of child mental health: description and validation in British and Norwegian samples. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 46, 521–532 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-010-0219-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-010-0219-x