Ages: 5 to 12 Years

Completion Time: 10-15 Minutes

Reading Level: Eighth Grade (Flesch-Kincaid)

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The Child Symptom Inventory-4 (CSI-4) is a behavior rating scale for evaluating the symptoms of DSM-IV and DSM-5 emotional and behavioral disorders among children between 5 and 12 years old who are attending elementary school (kindergarten thru 6th grade). There are both parent- and teacher-completed versions. The CSI-4: Parent Checklist contains 97 items for over a dozen emotional and behavioral disorders, and the CSI-4: Teacher Checklist contains 77 items. The CSI-4 can be scored to derive symptom count cutoff scores (diagnostic model) or symptom severity scores (T scores based on a dimensional model). Scoring is quick and easy with user-friendly score sheets.

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Disorders

The CSI-4 assesses the symptoms of the following disorders:  *AD/HD  *oppositional defiant disorder  *conduct disorder   *generalized anxiety disorder  *social phobia  *separation anxiety disorder  *major depressive disorder  *persistent depressive disorder  *schizophrenia  *autistic disorder  *Asperger's disorder. In addition there are one or two items for each of the following disorders:  *specific phobia  *obsessive-compulsive disorder  *adjustment disorder  *acute stress disorder  *motor tics  *vocal tics  *encopresis  *enuresis.

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Components 

The CSI-4 Parent Checklist and the CSI-4 Teacher Checklist are each sold separately in packages of 50 and 100 checklists. CSI-4 Symptom Count Cutoff Score Sheets (categorical scoring) are included. The CSI-4 Parent Checklist is available in Spanish and is keyed to the English-language version item-by-item.

CSI-4 Symptom Severity Profile score sheets (dimensional scoring) can be purchased for the CSI-4 Parent Checklist and the CSI-4 Teacher Checklist, separately. The Profiles present T scores and corresponding raw scores for each diagnostic category with symptom severity cutoffs. There are separate Profiles for boys and girls.

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The Child Symptom Inventory-4 Screening and Norms Manual reviews DSM diagnostic criteria and describes research, normative data, scoring guidelines, and clinical applications for categorical scoring and dimensional scoring.

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The CSI Deluxe Kit contains the Manual, 25 Parent Checklists, 25 Teacher Checklists, 50 symptom count score sheets (with scoring instructions, cutoff scores, and rule out diagnoses), and 50 symptom severity profile (T scores) score sheets for both Parent (tablet of 25) and Teacher (tablet of 25) Checklists.

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Research

CSI-4 subscale scores demonstrate satisfactory test-retest reliability, show a high degree of correspondence with psychiatric diagnoses, and correlate well with other commonly used dimensional scales. Low to moderate correlations between parent and teacher ratings underscore the value of obtaining information from both informants when conducting clinical evaluations. An extensive annotated bibliography that used at least one Checkmate Plus measure to include the CSI-4 can be accessed here.

 

Scoring

The CSI-4 is scored to derive two different scores:

• Symptom Count Cutoff scores based on the number of symptoms necessary for DSM diagnoses, and

• Symptom Severity scores based on a dimensional model that uses normative data to generate T scores.