The parents or primary caregivers of 117 young people 5- to 17-years-old, presenting to a Midwestern urban outpatient psychiatric research clinic, completed a Young Mania Rating Scale. Of this group of children, 75 percent underwent a diagnostic evaluation including a semi-structured instrument, the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children, and were also clinically evaluated by a child and adolescent psychiatrist. It was found that factor analyses of the P-YMRS suggested one dimension, with a total score showing acceptable internal consistency. Logistic regressions discriminated bipolar mood disorder, versus unipolar disorder, versus disruptive behavior disorder, and versus any other diagnosis. It was found that classification rates exceeded 78 percent and analyses of receiver operating characteristics showed good diagnostic efficiency with areas under the curve greater than .82. The results validated the further use of P-YMRS to derive clinically meaningful information about mood disorders in youths. Tables include anchor item comparisons between the Y-MRS and P-YMRS; primary diagnoses and rates of co-morbidity for ADHD; descriptive statistics, factor loadings, and corrected items--total correlations for P-YMRS items; P-YMRS mean scores by diagnostic categories; logistic regression analyses examining diagnostic distinctions; and areas under the curve for receiver operating characteristic analyses of P-YMRS. It is noted that these results may not be generalized to a clinical setting, as the study was performed in a specialized research sample. References