Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale Modified for Pervasive Developmental Disorders

Objective: To examine the psychometric properties of the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scales (CYBOCS) modified for pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs).

Method: Raters from five Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP) Autism Network were trained to reliability. The modified scale (CYBOCS-PDD), which contains only the five Compulsion severity items (range 0-20), was administered to 172 medication-free children (mean 8.2 ± 2.6 years) with POD (autistic disorder, n = 152; Asperger's disorder, n = 6; POD not otherwise specified, n = 14) participating in RUPP clinical trials. Reliability was assessed by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and internal consistency by Cronbach's a coefficient. Correlations with ratings of repetitive behavior and disruptive behavior were examined for validity.

Results: Eleven raters showed excellent reliability (ICC= 0.97). The mean CYBOCS score was 14.4 (± 3.86) with excellent internal consistency (α = .85). Correlations with other measures of repetitive behavior ranged from r = 0.11 to r = 0.28 and were similar to correlations with measures of irritability (r = 0.24) and hyperactivity (r = 0.25). Children with higher scores on the CYBOCS-PDD had higher levels of maladaptive behaviors and lower adaptive functioning.

Conclusions: The five- item CYBOCS-PDD is reliable, distinct from other measures of repetitive behavior, and sensitive to change.