The reliability and validity of the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System--II (DPICS II) was assessed in the present study

PCIT

The reliability and validity of the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System--II (DPICS II) was assessed in the present study. The DPICS II is the revised version of a behavioral observation coding system used in research and clinical settings to describe the quality of parent-child dyadic interactions. The DPICS II contains 25 categories to code parents' and children's verbal and nonverbal behavior including commands, compliance to commands, questions, praise, yell, whine, destructive, and criticism. The study participants were sixty mother-child dyads representing a clinic-referred group (n = 30) and a non-problem comparison group (n = 30). The children in the clinic-referred group were participants in a large treatment outcome study (N = 100) for preschool children with behavior problem. All participants had met diagnostic criteria for Oppositional Defiant Disorder. The data on the clinic-referred families used in the present study was collected as part of the families' standard initial assessment in the larger outcome study. The mother-child pairs in the comparison group were recruited from the Gainesville, FL community through advertisements. To be included in the study, the children in the comparison group received maternal ratings on the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI)--Problem Scale of 11 or less. The two groups were compared on several measures including the Parenting Stress Index (PSI), the Parenting Locus of Control (PLOC), and the ECBI as well as DPICS II behavioral observations. Videotapes of the parent-child dyads were coded by observers trained to use the DPICS II. The primary coders were blind to the group membership and to the study hypotheses. Fifty percent of the videotapes, randomly selected, were re-coded to evaluate reliability. Reliability was assessed using percent agreement, intraclass correlations, and Cohen's kappa. Overall, the DPICS II categories were shown to have acceptable reliability estimates. The DPICS II also demonstrated convergent validity by accounting for a significant proportion of variance in the scores on the ECBI, the PLOC, and the parent and child scales of the PSI. Selected DPICS II categories were used in a discriminant analysis and correctly classified families into the clinic-referred and non-referred groups.