Evaluation of Psychometric Properties of the Clinician Affective Reactivity Index: A Clinician-Rated Assessment of Irritability

In childhood, mood is one of the important factors underlying behavioral and emotional problems. The aim of the present study was to validate and standardize the Emotional Reactivity Index for assessing irritability by a therapist in Mashhad.

The research employed a survey methodology. The research's statistical population comprised 300 parents and male students aged 8 to 15 in Mashhad who were diagnosed with disruptive mood disorder and sought treatment at psychological and counseling clinics specializing in children and adolescents in the area. The participants were diagnosed with disruptive mood dysregulation disorder based on the clinical interview and the semi-structured diagnostic interview K-SADS-PL (2016) conducted by a clinical psychologist selected through convenience sampling. They also completed the clinical emotional reactivity questionnaire (irritability assessment).

In order to assess reliability using SPSS software, the internal consistency method was employed through Cronbach's alpha. To evaluate construct validity using Lisrel software, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. Convergent validity was assessed using the convergent validity index (AVE) method. The Cronbach's alpha values for the entire clinical assessment of emotional reactivity were 0.77, and for the subscales of mood outburst, irritable mood, and vulnerability, the values were 0.85, 0.63, and 0.72, respectively. The retest results yielded a value of 0.73. Came. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis also indicated that the 3-factor structure of the clinical evaluation scale for mood and irritability has a good fit. (NFI=0.92, NNFI=0.90, CFI=0.91, IFI=0.93, GFI=0.96, AGFI=0.93, RMSEA=0.059, df=127, X2=362.08, X2/df=2.85).

The research findings indicate that the Emotional Reactivity Clinical Evaluation Questionnaire is a suitable and valid tool for assessing disruptive mood disorder in children in Iran.