A rating scale for assessing dysphoria in youth.

A rating scale (RSD) for children and adolescents was developed consisting of 12 items from the Peer Nomination Inventory of Depression (Lefkowitz & Tesiny, 1980) converted to a Likert-type format for obtaining self-ratings or ratings by significant others of dysphoria. The measure was administered to 784 mothers whose children's modal age was 10 years. Longitudinal data were gathered for 124 of these mother-child pairs after an interval of 2 years and for 133 mother-child pairs after an interval of 4 years. At the second interval, 82 of the 133 children's fathers also contributed RSD data. Analyses of reliability and validity indicate that the RSD possesses adequate psychometric properties and may be used for purposes of research and screening, and, experimentally, for clinical assessment.