Description

The Leyton Obsessional Inventory – Child Version (LOI-CV-20) is a psychometric instrument used to screen for and assess obsessive-compulsive symptoms in children and adolescents. It is one of the established measures used to evaluate obsessive-compulsive symptomatology in younger populations.

The instrument allows not only the identification of specific symptoms but also the assessment of the extent to which these symptoms interfere with the child’s or adolescent’s daily functioning.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the LOI-CV-20 is to detect possible obsessive-compulsive symptoms and assess their degree of interference in everyday life.

The scale may be used in research, educational, and clinical settings, especially when a brief and structured assessment of obsessive-compulsive symptomatology is required.

Structure of the Scale

According to the source material, the scale was developed by Flament in 1988, consists of 20 items, and includes two subscales.

The items focus on both the presence of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and the extent to which those symptoms interfere with the individual’s functioning.

Administration

Each of the 20 items includes two levels of assessment.

First, respondents indicate the presence or absence of the symptom using a Yes/No response.

Second, if the symptom is present, respondents rate the degree of interference caused by the symptom on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 0 to 3, where 0 = no interference and 3 = high interference.

Scoring and Interpretation

The assessment includes separate scores related to the number of positive symptom responses and the level of symptom interference.

According to the source file, the reported cut-off scores are:

15 for the “Yes” symptom score,
25 for the interference score, and
35 for the total score.

Higher scores indicate a greater level of obsessive-compulsive symptom presence and/or interference, whereas lower scores reflect a lower level of interference.

These cut-off values should be interpreted in accordance with the specific version and population in which the instrument is used and should not be considered a substitute for a comprehensive clinical evaluation.

Statistical Analysis

The source material reports that measurement invariance analyses indicated that the Leyton scale was invariant in relation to the presence or absence of obsessive-compulsive disorder, age, and gender.

Such analyses are important because they examine whether the scale measures the same construct in a comparable way across different participant groups.

Validity and Reliability

According to the source material, the Spanish version of the LOI-CV was developed using the back-translation method described by Hambleton. The instrument demonstrated acceptable internal consistency, with a reported Cronbach’s alpha of 0.79.

However, the source file also cites research indicating that the LOI-CV Survey Form did not demonstrate adequate psychometric properties in a sample of American youth with pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Therefore, interpretation should take into account the specific cultural and clinical context as well as the available psychometric evidence for the population being assessed.

Applications

The LOI-CV-20 may be used in studies concerning child and adolescent mental health, obsessive-compulsive disorder, symptom screening, and functional impairment.

It may also support the initial identification of individuals who could benefit from further assessment and may be useful for monitoring changes in obsessive-compulsive symptomatology within research or clinical contexts.

References

Akinci, E., & Sevi, O. M. (2020). The effect of psycho-education about maternal attitudes on childhood obsessive compulsive disorder symptoms. Klinik Psikiyatri Dergisi, 23(1), 7–22.

Flament, M. F., Whitaker, A., Rapoport, J. L., Davies, M., Berg, C. Z., Kalikow, K., et al. (1988). Obsessive compulsive disorder in adolescence: An epidemiological study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 27(6), 764–771.

Lambe, L. J., Burton, C. L., Anagnostou, E., Kelley, E., Nicolson, R., Georgiades, S., et al. (2021). Clinical validation of the parent-report Toronto Obsessive–Compulsive Scale (TOCS): A pediatric open-source rating scale. JCPP Advances, 1(4), e12056.

Stein, D., Meged, S., Bar-Hanin, T., Blank, S., Elizur, A., & Weizman, A. (1997). Partial eating disorders in a community sample of female adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 36(8), 1116–1123.

Storch, E. A., Park, J. M., Lewin, A. B., Morgan, J. R., Jones, A. M., & Murphy, T. K. (2011). The Leyton Obsessional Inventory-Child Version Survey Form does not demonstrate adequate psychometric properties in American youth with pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 25(4), 574–578.