Brief Description
The DSM-5 Cross-Cutting Symptom Measure, Parent/Guardian Report (DSM-5 Level 1 Parent/Guardian) asks parents of children ages 6-17 to rate their child’s symptoms across a broad range of mental health disorders. More specifically, symptoms assess 12 psychiatric domains, including somatic symptoms, sleep problems, inattention, depression, anger, irritability, mania, anxiety, psychosis, repetitive thoughts and behaviors, substance use, and suicide. The DSM-5 Level 1 Parent/Guardian can be used as a monitoring tool for a variety of symptoms throughout treatment, or as a screening tool for several symptomatic domains. Parents rate how much or how often their children were bothered by the symptoms listed (e.g., “Slept less than usual for him/her, but still had lots of energy?”) on a scale from “None/Not at all” to “Severe/Nearly every day”.
Assessment Administration Type
Parent report
Number of questions
25
Age Range for Administration
Parents of children ages 6-17
Recommended Frequency of Administration
While recommended as a screener on Blueprint, it also can be used as clinically indicated to track progress over time.
Summary of Scoring and Interpretations
The DSM-5 Level 1 Parent/Guardian contains 25 questions; the first 19 items are scored on a 5-point Likert scale from 0 (“None/Not at all”) to 4 ("Severe/Nearly every day") and the final 6 items related to suicide and substance use are answered as either “Yes”, “No”, or “I Don’t Know”. The scores within each item within a domain should be reviewed. A rating of mild (i.e., 2) or greater on any item within a domain serves as a guide for additional inquiry/follow-up, with the exception of the inattention and psychosis domains, where a score of slight (i.e., 1) or greater on any item serves as a guide for additional inquiry/follow-up. For the suicide and substance use domains, any “Yes” or “I don’t know” response would suggest additional inquiry/follow-up. See table below for domains, their associated item numbers, and threshold for further inquiry.
Domain/Subscale | Corresponding Item | Threshold to Guide Further Inquiry |
Somatic symptoms | 1, 2 | Mild or greater |
Sleep problems | 3 | Mild or greater |
Inattention | 4 | Slight or greater |
Depression | 5, 6 | Mild or greater |
Irritability | 7 | Mild or greater |
Anger | 8 | Mild or greater |
Mania | 9, 10 | Mild or greater |
Anxiety | 11, 12, 13 | Mild or greater |
Psychosis | 14, 15 | Slight or greater |
Repetitive Thoughts and Behaviors | 16, 17, 18, 19 | Mild or greater |
Substance Use | 20, 21, 22, 23 | “Yes” Or “I Don’t Know” on any item |
Suicidal Ideation/Suicide Attempts | 24, 25 | “Yes” Or “I Don’t Know” on any item |
Blueprint Adjustments
N/A
Clinical Considerations
Estimated completion time: 5-10 minutes
The items on the DSM-5 Cross-Cutting Symptom measures do not relate to any specific disorder and as such are not intended to be diagnostic or to serve as screening measures for any disorder. Instead, the measures were developed to be used as adjunct tools to give clinicians quantitative ratings that characterize clients in a way that is simple, useful, and clinically meaningful that will inform clinical decision-making and treatment.
There are also adult and child self-report versions of the DSM-5 Level 1 Cross-Cutting Measure.
Citation
Relevant Articles + Further Resources
We're here for you!
Do you have follow-up questions? We're here and happy to help!
Send us an email at help@blueprint-health.com or use the help messenger in the lower right corner to speak with our Support team. 💪🏼