Abstract
The study asked how well Achenbach's 8-factor cross-informant model for the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991a, 1991b, 1991c) fits clinic data in the USA, Holland, and Australia. DeGroot et al.'s Dutch 8-factor model (DeGroot, Koot, & Verhulst 1994) was also tested for its cross-cultural generalizability. Achenbach's matched clinical sample data (N = 2110) were analyzed and contrasted with the previously reported Dutch findings (N = 2335), as well as a new data set collected on clinic referred children and adolescents in Australia (N = 2237). Confirmatory factor analyses supported the Dutch as much as the American model in the USA, Holland, and Australia. Although about 90% of items showed convergent validity across models and countries, the attention and especially the social problems factor found least support. Most double loadings in the current models were not upheld. Instead, additional analyses discovered a number of unmodelled loadings including many cross-loadings. This led to the redefinition of the social problems factor as a mean aggression factor (with associated social problems) whereas the original aggression factor focuses on emotional acting out and the delinquent factor describes an evasive, covert type of antisocial behavior. Overall most support was obtained for the withdrawn, somatic, anxious/depressed, thought problems, and aggressive factors.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Achenbach, T. M. (1966). The classification of children's psychiatric symptoms: A factor analytic study. Psychological Monographs, 80 (No. 615).
Achenbach, T. M. (1978). The Child Behavior Profile: I. Boys aged 6-11. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46, 478-488.
Achenbach, T. M. (1991a). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist/4-18 and 1991 Profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.
Achenbach, T. M. (1991b). Manual for the Teacher's Report Form and 1991 Profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.
Achenbach, T. M. (1991c). Manual for the Youth Self-Report and 1991 Profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.
Achenbach, T. M. (1993). Empirically based taxonomy: How to use syndromes and profile types derived from the CBCL/4-18, TRF, and YSR. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.
Achenbach, T. M., Conners, C. K., Quay, H. C., Verhulst, F. C., & Howell, C. T. (1989). Replication of empirically derived syndromes as a basis for taxonomy of child/adolescent psycho-pathology. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 17, 299-323.
Achenbach, T. M., & Edelbrock, C. (1978). The classification of child psychopathology: A review and analysis of empirical efforts. Psychological Bulletin, 85, 1275-1301.
Achenbach, T. M., & Edelbrock, C. (1979). The Child Behavior Profile: II. Boys aged 12-16 and girls aged 6-11 and 12-16. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 47, 223-233.
Achenbach, T. M., & Edelbrock, C. (1981). Behavioral problems and competencies reported by parents of normal and disturbed children aged four to sixteen. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 46(Serial No. 188).
Achenbach, T. M., & Edelbrock, C. (1983). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist and Revised Child Behavior Profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.
Achenbach, T. M., McConaughy, S. H., & Howell, C. T. (1987). Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: Implications of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 213-232.
American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Barkley, R. A., DuPaul, G. J., & McMurray, M. B. (1991). Attention deficit disorder with and without hyperactivity: Clinical response to three dose levels of methylphenidate. Pediatrics, 87, 519-531.
Bentler, P. M. (1990). Comparative fit indices in structural models. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 238-246.
Bentler, P. M., & Bonett, D. G. (1980). Significance tests and goodnessof-fit in the analysis of covariance structures. Psychological Bulletin, 88, 588-606.
Berg, I., Fombonne, E., McGuire, R., & Verhulst, F. (1997). A crosscultural comparison of French and Dutch disturbed children using the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL). European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 6, 7-11.
Burns, G. L., Walch, J. A., Patterson, D. R., Holte, C. S., Sommers-Flanagan, R., & Parker, C. M. (1997). Internal validity of the disruptive behavior disorder symptoms: Implications from parent ratings for a dimensional approach to symptom validity. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 25, 307-319.
Cole, P. M., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (1992). Emotional dysregulation in disruptive behavior disorders. In D. Cicchetti & S. L. Toth (Eds.), Rochester symposium on developmental psychopathology, Vol. 4: Developmental perspectives on depression. New York: University of Rochester Press.
Dedrick, R. F., Greenbaum, P. E., Friedman, R. M., Wetherington, C. M., & Knoff, H. M. (1997). Testing the structure of the Child Behavior Checklist/4-18 using confirmatory factor analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 57, 306-313.
DeGroot, A., Koot, H. M., & Verhulst, F. C. (1994). Cross-cultural generalizability of the Child Behavior Checklist cross-informant syndromes. Psychological Assessment, 6, 225-230.
Doepfner, M., Schmeck, K., Berner, W., Lehmkuhl, G., & Poustka, F. (1994). Zur Reliabilitaet und faktoriellen Validitaet der Child Behavior Checklist-eine Analyse in einer klinischen und einer Feldstichprobe. Zeitschrift fuer Kinder-und Jugendpsychiatrie, 22, 189-205.
Drotar, D., Stein, R. E. K., & Perrin, E. C. (1995). Methodological issues in using the Child Behavior Checklist and its related instruments in clinical child psychology research. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 24, 184-192.
DuPaul, G. J., Anastopolous, A. D., Power, T. J., Reid, R., McGoey, K. E., & Ikeda, M. J. (1998). Parent ratings of ADHD symptoms: Factor structure, normative data, and psychometric properties. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 20, 83-102.
Edelbrock, C. S. (1988). The Child Attention Profile. Unpublished manuscript.
Edelbrock, C., & Costello, A. J. (1988). Convergence between statistically derived behavior problem syndromes and child psychiatric diagnoses. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 16, 219-231.
Feinstein, A. R. (1967). Clinical judgement. Huntingon, NY: Krieger.
Floyd, F. J., & Widaman, K. F. (1995). Factor analysis in the development and refinement of clinical assessment instruments. Psychological Assessment, 7, 286-299.
Frick, P. J., O'Brien, B. S., Wootton, J. M., & McBurnett, K. (1994). Psychopathy and conduct problems in children. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 700-707.
Gomez, R., Harvey, J., Quick, C., Sharer, I., & Harris, G. (1999). DSM-IV AD/HD: Confirmatory factor models, prevalence, and gender and age differences based on parent and teacher ratings of Australian primary school children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40, 265-274.
Hensley, V. R. (1988). Australian normative study of the Achenbach Child Behaviour Checklist. Australian Psychologist, 23, 371-382.
Hull, J. G., Lehn, D. A., & Tedlie, J. C. (1991). A general approach to testing multifaceted personality constructs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 932-945.
Joreskog, K. G. (1990). New developments in LISREL: Analysis of ordinal variables using polychoric correlations and weighted least squares. Quality and Quantity, 24, 387-404.
Joreskog, K. G., & Sorbom, D. (1994). LISREL 8 user's reference guide. Chicago: Scientific Software International.
Macmann, G. M., Barnett, D. W., & Lopez, E. J. (1993). The Child Behavior Checklist/4-18 and related materials: Reliability and validity of syndromal assessment. School Psychology Review, 22, 322-333.
Marsh, H. W., Balla, J. R., & Hau, K. (1996). An evaluation of incremental fit indices: A clarification of mathematical and empirical properties. In G. A. Marcoulides & R. E. Schumacker (Eds.), Advanced structural equation modeling: Issues and techniques (pp. 315-353) Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Marsh, H. W., Balla, J. R., & McDonald, R. P. (1988). Goodness-of-fit indexes in confirmatory factor analysis: The effect of sample size. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 391-410.
Mezzich, J. E., & Mezzich, A. C. (1987). Diagnostic classification systems in child psychopathology. In C. L. Frame & J. L. Matson (Eds.), Handbook of assessment in childhood psychopathology. New York: Plenum Press.
Olsson, U. (1979). Maximum likelihood estimation of the polychoric correlation coefficient. Psychometrika, 44, 443-460.
Rigdon, E. E., & Ferguson, C. E. (1991). The performance of the polychoric correlation coefficient and selected fitting functions in confirmatory factor analysis with ordinal data. Journal of Marketing Research, 28, 491-497.
Patterson, G. R. (1982). A social learning approach, Vol. 3: Coercive family process. Eugene, OR: Castalia.
Steiger, J. H., & Lind, J. C. (1980, May). Statistically-based tests for the number of common factors. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Iowa City, IA.
Tucker, L. R., & Lewis, C. (1973). A reliability coefficient for maximum likelihood factor analysis. Psychometrika, 38, 1-10.
Weisz, J. R., Sigman, M., Weiss, B., & Mosk, J. (1993). Parent reports of behavioral and emotional problems among children in Kenya, Thailand, and the United States. Child Development, 64, 98-109.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Heubeck, B.G. Cross-Cultural Generalizability of CBCL Syndromes Across Three Continents: From the USA and Holland to Australia. J Abnorm Child Psychol 28, 439–450 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005131605891
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005131605891