ODD Test for Child
How the Scales are Structured
Who Usually Takes This Test?
See How You Compare
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.
Example Questions From the Test
- Never
- Sometimes
- Often
- Very often
- Never or almost never
- Sometimes
- Often
- Very often
- Never or almost never
- Sometimes
- Often
- Very often
ODD Test for Child - Description and methodology of the test
Adults can use the ODD Test for Child to organize observations from everyday situations and compare responses across different contexts and routines. Rather than judging one isolated incident, an oppositional defiant disorder screening result helps to clarify whether reported reactions are situation-bound or recur across settings and relationships over time.
What This Assessment Measures
The questionnaire covers ODD symptoms in children such as arguing with adults, refusing requests, irritability, blaming, deliberate annoyance, and spitefulness. It also asks whether these reactions appear with family, teachers, peers, and other adults, rather than only in one relationship or routine.
The result separates the child’s reported behavior into three dimensions:
- Cross-Setting Consistency (0-10) shows whether behavior is Mostly situation-specific (0-3), shows Some cross-setting consistency (4-6), or is Consistent across settings (7-10).
- Impairment & Impact (0-20) shows disruption in home life, learning, relationships, and caregiving: Low impact (0-6), Moderate impact (7-13), or High impact (14-20).
- ODD Symptom Severity (0-40) reflects reported oppositional-defiant behavior: Low (0-13), Moderate (14-26), or High (27-40).
Together, these dimensions help distinguish a narrow situational difficulty from a broader pattern affecting several parts of the child’s life.
Methodology and Evidence Base
Items use brief caregiver response choices, with anchors that vary by topic. Some ask about agreement; others rate frequency, intensity, impact, or support sought. This lets respondents describe behavior and its effects. Scores summarize responses within the three dimensions; the ranges define reporting bands rather than a deducible point value for each answer.
The closest published comparison is the Oppositional Defiant Disorder Rating Scale (Hommersen et al., 2006), which addresses arguing, defiance, irritability, and vindictiveness. This ODD test is conceptually consistent with that work, not an adaptation of it. Raine et al. (2022) offers a later CODDS framework, and the DSM-5-TR provides the clinical description of oppositional defiant disorder. These sources support construct interpretation; they do not make this online questionnaire a standardized version of any source.
Caregiver ratings remain sensitive to recall, current stress, expectations, and observer differences. The tool is an online caregiver-report self-reflection measure with questionnaire-specific bands. High symptom-severity and impact bands indicate more substantial reported symptoms or impact, whereas a high cross-setting-consistency band indicates that behavior appears across settings; interpretation should consider context when concerns persist.
- Hommersen, Paul, Candice Murray, Jeneva L. Ohan, and Charlotte Johnston. (2006). Oppositional Defiant Disorder Rating Scale: Preliminary Evidence of Reliability and Validity. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 14(2), 118-125. 10.1177/10634266060140020201
- Raine, Adrian, Shichun Ling, Wesley Streicher, and Jianghong Liu. (2022). The conduct and oppositional defiant disorder scales (CODDS) for disruptive behaviour disorders. Psychiatry Research, 316, 114744. 10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114744
- American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR). American Psychiatric Association Publishing.
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