The McMaster family assessment device and clinical rating scale: questionnaire vs interview in childhood traumatic brain injury.

Two modalities of family assessment based on the McMaster Model of Family Functioning (MMFF), including a self-report questionairre (Family Assessment Device-FAD) and a clinical interview (McMaster Structured Interview For Families-McSIFF) as scored on the McMaster Clinical Rating Scale (MCRS) were compared in an attempt to explore the inter-changeability of the two. Significant correlations were hypothesized between the FAD and MCRS in both prospective and retrospective groups and that correlations would increase over three data points in the prospective study. The sample included 50 children and adolescents (ages 6-4) with traumatic brain injury (TBI) from a prospective study. In addition, 72 children and adolescents (ages 5-14), consisting of 24 patients with severe TBI, individually matched to a comparison group of 24 mild TBI patients and a control group of 24 orthopaedic patients were included from a retrospective study. Significant correlations between the FAD and MCRS were found across both studies, with increasing correlations at each successive data point in the prospective study. Agreement between the two measures regarding classification of families as clinical vs healthy was also statistically significant at the majority of assessment occasions; however, most specific indices of agreement were only modest. The clinical and research implications of these findings are discussed.