Child and adolescent personality assessment: A practice primer

Personality assessments of children and adolescents is a complex, multi-step process (Logan, 2004) that includes clarification of referral, history taking, record review, interviewing, identification of tests and measures, observations, scoring interpretation, diagnosis or classification, recommendations and feedback. These assessments also interface with medical, educational, social service and/or forensic services, and involve the assessor's attentiveness to ethical–legal and practice guidelines, evaluation procedures and sensitivity to multiculturalism. Textbook literature (Freeman and Reinecke 2007; Kamphaus and Frick, 2005; Saklofske et al., 2013; Smith and Handler, 2007) provides thorough reviews of these areas. This paper offers a synopsis of these points, along with a case application, as a support guide for students, supervisors, teachers and independent practitioners of child and adolescent personality assessment.