Poster #66 - Validation of the RADA (RAD and DSED Assessment): A Semi-Structured Interview for Attachment Disorders

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

Introduction. Attachment disorders (AD), namely the Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and the Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder (DSED), are psychiatric disorders that children may develop as a result of severe early adversity (e.g. maltreatment, institutionalization, repeated changes of caregivers, Zeanah & Gleason, 2015). Several measures of AD are currently available, but none has been fully validated. The well-known CAPA-RAD interview (Minnis et al., 2009) was recently revised into the RADA (RAD and DSED Assessment semi-structured interview, Minnis, 2017) to consider the latest RAD and DSED DSM-5 criteria (APA, 2013). Recently, the RADA was used in a sample of 320 foster care (FC) adolescents and showed a three-factor organization, with two scales for RAD and one scale for DSED (Lehmann & al., 2018). However, data for younger children of the school age period are scarce. This study, with non-maltreated school age children from the normative population and maltreated children living in different care arrangements, documents the RADA’s factorial structure and other psychometric properties.

Method. The sample includes three subgroups of school-aged children (N=123; M=8.9 SD=2.0): 1) Typically developing children (TDC; n=45), 2) Children in foster care (FC; n=27), and 3) Children in residential treatment care (RTC; n=51). Primary caregivers completed two questionnaires, the RPQ (Relationship Problems Questionnaire, Minnis et al., 2002), a questionnaire measuring for RAD (6 items) and DSED (4 items) on the basis of the DSM-IV and ICD-10 criteria; and the ETRAD-Q (Early TRAuma-related Disorders Questionnaire, Monette, 2016), a questionnaire measuring RAD (25 items) and DSED (16 items) on the basis of the latest DSM-5 criteria. Primary caregivers were also interviewed using the RADA interview (DSED: 9 questions, RAD: 11 questions). Interjudge reliability was established by two coders on 40 cases and was found excellent (ricc= .94 and .90).

Results and conclusions. Scree plot inspection and modern extraction methods (Horn’ parallel analysis and Velicer MAP test) yielded two factors (DSED and RAD, see Table 1) weakly correlated to each other(r=.24). Most items loaded strongly (> .50) on predicted factors, except three items. Contrary to expectation, item 3 “Comfort seeking with strangers” loaded (weakly) on the RAD factor (.29) instead of the DSED factor. Item 9 “Demanding/attention seeking” loaded on both factors (.41 and .33). Item 20 “Frozen watchfulness” loaded weakly on the expected RAD factor at .39. Therefore, we kept item 20 on the RAD scale, but items 3 and 9 were excluded for further computation of the scales. Both the RAD and DSED scales showed good internal consistency (Cronbach = .84 and .85, respectively), and correlated with their equivalent scales of the RPQ (r = .56 and r = .65) and ETRAD-Q (r = .72 and r = .76, respectively)

ANOVAs, with Scheffe comparisons, revealed differences between the three groups of children for the RAD ( TDC < FC < RTC; F (2,120) = 39.43, p < 0.01), and DSED scales ( TDC < FC and RTC; F (2,120) = 9.13, p < 0.01),. Whereas RTC children had the highest scores of RAD symptoms, both FC and RTC children showed comparable, higher scores of DSED symptoms than TDC children.

Authors

• Maude Archambault, Université du Québec à Montréal
  Presenting Author

• Sebastien Monette, UQAM
  Non-Presenting Author

• Chantal Cyr, University of Quebec at Montreal
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stine Lehmann, Norwegian Research Centre, Bergen
  Non-Presenting Author

• Helen Minnis, University of Glasgow
  Non-Presenting Author