Summary of clinical/behavioral batteries - Objective 1

Detailed information for each instrument, including reliability and validity estimates, can be found in the NIHPD Protocol.

Screening instruments

The first 3 screening instruments were developed by the study investigators and the 4th was revised by the investigators from previous NIMH studies. They were designed to identify potential participants and familial or health-related exclusionary criteria (see table below for exclusionary criteria).

1) Brief Telephone Screening Interview - was administered to ensure that the family had a child within the target age range, that English is the child’s primary language, that at least one parent is proficient in reading English, and that the potential child participant does not have a diagnosed chronic medical psychiatric condition, learning, or neurological disorder.

2) Full Telephone Screening Interview - was administered to identify exclusionary criteria. It includes specific questions about family health and history and pregnancy and birth related questions specific to the target child.

3) MRI Child History Form - was administered to assess the target child’s possibility of past head injuries, type and number of medications, hospitalizations, surgeries, etc.

4) Family Interview for Genetic Studies - MRI (FIGS-MRI) - was administered to gather family histories. A pedigree was drawn and general screening questions were asked about each relative. Based on the participants’ responses, if any disease/disorder information arose, specific symptom checklists were administered. These were also administered for all first-degree relatives.

Mental health and behavioral assessments

5) Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach, 1991) - a questionnaire completed by parents or youth investigating the child’s competencies and/or emotional or behavioral problems. This study used the following versions: CBCL 1:5 – 5 and 6 – 18 parent report and the Young Adult Self-Report (YASR) self-report for subjects 18 years and older.

6) Computerized Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (C-DISC-4; NIMH) - a comprehensive, structured questionnaire developed to measure mental disorders and psychological symptoms. Both parents of children and children ages 7 and older complete the parent and child versions, respectively.

7) DISC Predictive Scales (DPS-4; NIMH) - Youth ages 11 years and older complete this self-report scale to identify symptoms of eight specific disorders, including anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, substance use disorders, eating disorders, and other behavioral disorders.

8) Junior Temperament and Character Inventory - Version 2 (JTCI- 2; Cloninger, 1993, 1994) -Assesses 7 dimensions of personality, four temperament dimensions (novelty seeking, reward dependence, harm avoidance, and persistence) and three character dimensions (self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence). The study used the following versions: Parental and self-report for children 4 years 6 months to 14 years 11 months old.

• The Temperament and Character Inventory - Version 9 (TCI -9; Cloninger, 1993) assess the same dimensions as the junior version. The parent and self report forms were used for adolescents and young adults, ages 15 years and older.

Executive function assessments

9) Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF; Gioia et al., 2000) -The parent form was used to measure executive function based on parents’ ratings of their children’s daily behavior. It contains eight scales: inhibit, shift, and emotional control (Behavior Regulation factor) and working memory, plan/organize, organization of materials, monitor, and initiate (Metacognition factor).

10) Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB; Sahakian et al., 1999; CeNeS, 2006) - an automated computerized test, mostly non-verbal, with stimuli visually presented and responses gauged from touch screen. The study uses the five subtests measuring executive function, working memory, and planning, administered to children 4 year and 6 months and older.

• Motor Screening Task. This simple reaction time test measures psychomotor speed and accuracy and is designed to screen for psychomotor impairments that would interfere with later task performance.
• Spatial Span Task. This task measures memory for figural sequences.
• Spatial Working Memory Task. This self-ordered searching task (Petrides & Milner, 1982) measuring working memory for spatial stimuli and requires the subject to use mnemonic information to work towards a goal.
• Big Little Circle. This is a two-stimuli visual discrimination and category achievement test, used as training or screener for ID/ED task.
• Intradimensional/Extradimensional Set-Shifting Task (ID/ED). This task measures discrimination and reversal learning under conditions whereby the subject is required to shift attention to changing patterns of visual stimuli.

Intelligence, achievement, and verbal abilities

Intelligence

11) Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI; Wechsler, 1999) -The subtests of vocabulary, similarities, block design, and matrix reasoning were administered to children ages 6 years and older.

12) Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III; Wechsler, 1991) -The subtests of digit span and coding were administered to children ages 4 years 6 months to 16 years 11 months.

13) Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - Revised (WAIS-R; Wechsler, 1981) -The subtests of digit span and digit symbol were administered to adolescents ages 17 years and older.

14) Differential Ability Scales (DAS; Elliot, 1990) -measures both verbal and nonverbal abilities, designed to be a culture-fair test. Subjects ages 4 years, 6 months to 5 years, 11 months were administered all subtests: pattern recognition, picture similarities, verbal comprehension, early number concepts, naming vocabulary, and copying.

Achievement

15) Woodcock Johnson –III (WJ-III; Woodcock et al., 2001) - a battery of achievement tests. The following subtests were administered to children ages 4 years 6 months and older: calculation, letter-word identification, and passage comprehension.

Verbal abilities

16) California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT; Delis et al., 1994, 2000) -The study used the child version (CVLT-C; Delis et al., 1994) for subjects ages 4 years, 6 months to 15 years 11 months and the young adult version (CVLT-II; Delis et al., 2000) for subjects 16 years and older. The CVLT measures verbal learning and memory and examines the strategies and processes involved in learning and recalling verbal material.

17) NEPSY Verbal Fluency subtests (Kerman et al., 1998) - Subjects ages 3 years to 6 years, 11 months were given the Semantic section, while subjects 7 years and older completed the Semantic and Phonemic sections. The semantic section requires subjects to name, within a certain time range, as many words as possible in a specific category, such as animals. The phonemic section requires subjects to name, within a certain time range, all words that begin with a specific letter, for example ‘A.’ Rule adherence, number of correct words, and perseveration are measured.

Physical and neurological assessments

18) Physical/Neurological Exam -A physician skilled in neurological exams performed comprehensive physical and neurological exams.

19) Pubertal Development Scale (PDS; Petersen et al., 1988) - a self-report measure in which adolescents rated several aspects of puberty-related physical growth.

20) Handedness

• Purdue Pegboard - measures sensorimotor functions, particularly related to fine motor coordination. Subjects ages 4 years, 6 months to 5 years, 11 months were administered the Half Board and subjects ages 6 years and older were administered the Full Board to assess handedness.
• Handedness Test - Subjects ages 4 years, 6 months to 5 years, 11 months were asked to demonstrate handedness with a variety of developmentally appropriate tasks.

Urine and saliva assays

21) Saliva collection -assays were collected to obtain measurements of estradiol, testosterone, cortisol, and DHEA.

22) Urine collection - assays were collected to obtain measurements of estradiol and testosterone. Where applicable, pregnancy tests were administered with a separate urine sample.