The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 4 477 Participants The participants in this study (N = 179) included children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 19 that had been referred by their parents or guardians to a mental health clinic located in the Southern region of the United States. Following the securing of IRB approval, participant documents containing diagnoses, symptoms, and severity from children and adolescents that reported to the clinic between 2017 and 2020 were retrospectively collected. Participants who were prescribed psychotropic medication or had received any other diagnosis were excluded from the study. All participants were clients at the clinic at the time of data collection. Participants gave assent through their parent or guardian’s completion of an informed consent form, which indicated that diagnostic information would be used for research purposes, including future studies that would retrospectively collect participant information while keeping their identifying information confidential. Participants did not receive any reimbursement for participation in this study. The sample used in this study included 179 children and adolescents (121 boys and 58 girls) between 5 and 19 years of age (M = 13.34, SD = 3.56) that were diagnosed with ODD. Of the sample, 14 participants (8%) were between the ages of 5 and 8, 63 participants (35%) were between the ages of 9 and 12, 55 participants (31%) were between the ages of 13 and 16, and 47 participants (26%) were between the ages of 17 and 19. The average age of the sample was 13.34 years (SD = 3.56). Data Collection Measures CliniCom™ Psychiatric Assessment Software. The CliniCom™ Psychiatric Assessment (hereafter referred to as CliniCom) is a validated and reliable web-based tool that uses algorithms based on mental health research and DSM-5 criteria to identify multiple psychiatric conditions (Handal et al., 2018). CliniCom is a self-guided measure that collects information including individual and family history, social history, responses to mental health questions, self-assessment of severity of symptoms, quality of life, and current and previous mental health treatments. Participants complete CliniCom at their own pace on a computer at a location of their preference (e.g., home, school). CliniCom assesses for 81 disorders and utilizes items from the Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Scahill et al., 1997). CliniCom has undergone psychometric investigation, indicating 78% concordance in diagnosing the same disorder in test–retest analysis, including the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS; Goodman et al., 1989; Handal et al., 2018). The data were retrospectively collected from participants’ charts, which included a report from CliniCom. The participants completed CliniCom prior to their initial appointment with assistance from their parent or guardian. Participants received a suggested diagnosis from the assessment. Following the completion of the CliniCom assessment, semi-structured diagnostic interviews and parent questionnaires were conducted and completed. Diagnoses were verified and confirmed by a boardcertified child and adolescent psychiatrist. CliniCom and the semi-structured diagnostic interviews utilized diagnostic criteria from the DSM-5 (APA, 2013) to assess the onset, duration, frequency, and severity of mental disorders in addition to the level of impairment experienced by the client. Symptoms were conceptualized based on clinical severity, which ranges from 0–10, with 10 as the most severe presentation of the symptom and 4 or higher indicating moderate to severe symptoms. A score of 4 is the threshold to be considered positive for the symptom. The overall severity ratings for ODD and OCD are determined by the Clinical Global Impressions Scale (CGI-S). The CGI-S uses a range between 1 and 7 to indicate illness severity with 1 = normal to 7 = extremely ill (Busner & Targum, 2007).
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