Tools and Methods for Anxiety Disorder Assessment among Children and Adolescents in Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies
Résumé
This chapter provides an overview of current knowledge on the assessment of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents in relation to CBT treatment. Although the dimensional and categorical approaches have often been presented as opposed, today they appear to be compatible, particularly after the publication of version 5 of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), which overcomes this opposition and uses the two in combination. Nevertheless, a good working knowledge of these theoretical constructs is needed to choose among the many available clinical tools, questionnaires, tests, etc. The abundance and variety of these instruments means that they need to be selected on a case-by-case basis. especially with children, with whom clinical methodology often requires the participation of an external informant (parent, other close adult). Finally, despite the traditional division between the practices used in assessment and therapy, it is now possible, and even essential, to reconcile evaluative and therapeutic approaches on a single dynamic and longitudinal continuum. Here, we examine this particular issue in the case of cognitive and behavioral therapies, wherein the role of the various instruments that we survey includes the assessment both of the treated psychopathologies and of the effectiveness of the therapies themselves. We offer recommendations for the selection and use of clinical tools in screening and treatment for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents.