Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School
of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
THE DYADIC PARENT-CHILD INTERACTION CODING SYSTEM II (DPICS II): RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY WITH FATHER-CHILD DYADS By
Rebecca Clark Foote
August 1999
Chairman: Sheila Eyberg
Major Department: Clinical and Health Psychology
The reliability and validity of the Dyadic Parent-Child Coding System II (DPICS II) with father-child dyads were assessed in the present study. The DPICS II is the revised version of a behavioral observation coding system used in research and clinical settings to describe the quality of parent-child dyadic interactions. The DPICS II contains 25 categories to code parents' and children's verbal and nonverbal behavior.
The study participants were sixty father-child dyads representing a clinic-referred group (n = 30) and a non-problem comparison group (n = 30). The children in the clinicreferred group were participants in a large treatment outcome study (_N = 100) for preschool children with behavior problems. All clinic-referred participants had met diagnostic criteria for Oppositional Defiant Disorder. The data on the clinic-referred families used in the present study were collected as part of the families' standard initial assessment in the larger outcome study. The father-child pairs in the comparison group were recruited from the Gainesville, FL, community through advertisements. To be vii