Introduction: The K-SADS-PL diagnostic interview is useful for the cross-sectional and longitudinal evaluation of psychopathology in children and adolescents. The objective of this article was to describe the interrater reliability of the Spanish version of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children--Present and Lifetime version (K-SADS-PL).
Method: The interview was translated, back-translated and adapted to Spanish. Forty psychiatric outpatients (aged 6 to 17 years) were evaluated. The interviews were videotaped and scored by three independent raters. All of them included both the child's and parent's interview. Interrater reliability was obtained for affective, anxiety and conduct disorders using the Cohen's kappa coefficient.
Results: Kappa coefficients were between the good and excellent range for present and lifetime disorders (major depressive disorder kappa = 0.76, any anxiety disorder kappa = 0.84, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder kappa = 0.91 and conduct disorder, kappa = 1).
Conclusion: The Spanish version of the K-SADS-PL is a reliable instrument for the assessment of psychopathology in children and adolescents.