Evaluation of the Original Ontario Child Health Study Scales

Abstract

This article presents evaluative information on the use of the original Ontario Child Health Study scales to serve as ordinal-level measures of conduct disorder, hyperactivity and emotional disorder among children in the general (non clinic) population. Problem checklist assessments were obtained from parents and teachers of children aged six to 16 and youth aged 12 to 16 drawn from a general population (n = 1,751); and a mental health clinic sample (n = 1,027) in the same industrialized, urban setting. The results showed that the original OCHS scales possess adequate psychometric properties to be used as ordinal-level measures of disorder. Correlations between individual items and their hypothesized scales were very strong, indicating convergent validity, while correlations between the same items and other (non hypothesized) scales were lower, indicating discriminant validity. Item analyses indicated that individual scale items possess both convergent and discriminant validity. Although the scales were skewed to the positive end of the continuum, they demonstrated good internal consistency (all estimates ≥ 0.74) and test-retest (all estimates ≥ 0.65) reliability. Finally, three different validity analyses confirmed hypotheses about how the original OCHS scales should perform if they provide useful measures of disorder.