The Reliability of Developmental Histories

Pre‐ and Perinatal Complications and “Childhood Schizophrenia”: A Comparison of Five Controlled Studies*

“…The second methodological point has to do with the sources of information about pre-and perinatal events. Three studies have obtained all or part of this information (Drake and Ober, 1963;Robbins, 1963;Wenar, 1963) that parents may be relatively inaccurate informants, there is some basis for an assumption that their errors with regard to events of pregnancy and delivery are likely to be errors of omission (Drake and Ober, 1963;Wenar, 1963), thus providing a conservative estimate of the incidence of complications. Errors of omission are also characteristic of the information obtained from hospital and birth certificate records.…”

The Boundaries of Mental Health Expertise in Dependency and Family Law: A Proposal for Standards of Practice

“…For example, Borkovec,Stone,O'Brien and Kaloupek (1 974) found that college students' self-report bore little relationship to their physiological responsivity or their overt behavior during a stress-inducing social interaction. Wenar (1961) found history data provided by clinic mothers varied significantly over time. Similarly, Yarrow, Campbell and Burton (1968) concluded that "parent attitude questionnaires are seldom able to predict independently assessed child behavior. "…”

Perinatal Events as Precursors of Reading Disability

“…Birth histories were obtained from the children's parents and then checked against maternity hospital and midwife records. Again, the problems inherent in the retrospective method are present, with the added problem that parental memory is often unreliable insofar as child growth factors and significant life events are concerned (Wenar, 1963).…”