The Personality Inventory for Chilren

ABSTRACT The development of the Personality Inventory for Children (PIC) began with,the core concept that maternal reports 4-ciikei,provide data for child guidance evaluation 4nd the consequent belief that maternal responses to a 600-item administration booklet could yield scales useful in determining child and family status. Two areas of weakness were found; (1) the lack of depth of clinical -correlates left the test, use to extrapolate from assumed characteristics of criterion oup members and/or scale item content; and (2) the documentatio of utting scores did little to suggest at what elevations a scale clinical meaning. Therefore, criterion data was collected from parents in the form of a clinic application blank. The rekulting actuarial study, completed in 1979, analyzed 431 PIC protocols from children and adolescents during 1976 and 1977, comparing each of the 161 profile scales with 322 potential correlates. These analyses identified a reasonably robust number of cross-validated correlates and also delineated scale T-score ranges where these correlates ,were the most likely descriptive. Concerns which were also explored include: (1) the use of maternal reports to . predict cognitiiie characteristics of their children, (2) the possibility that PIC Scales represent maternal observations that can be distorted, and (3) t\he length of the administration booklet.