Behavioral and Emotional Problems Reported by Parents of Children Ages 6 to 16 in 31 Societies

Abstract

T his study compared parents' ratings of behavioral and emotional problems on the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991;Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) for general population samples of children ages 6 to 16 from 31 societies (N = 55,508). Effect sizes for society ranged from .03 to .14. Effect sizes for gender were ≤ .01, with girls generally scoring higher on Internalizing problems and boys generally scoring higher on Externalizing problems. Effect sizes for age were ≤ .01 and varied across types of problems.Total Problems scores for 19 of 31 societies were within 1 SD of the overall mean of 22.5. Bisociety correlations for mean item scores averaged .74. The findings indicate that parents' reports of children's problems were similar in many ways across highly diverse societies. Nonetheless, effect sizes for society were larger than those for gender and age,indicating the need to take account of multicultural variations in parents' reports of children's problems.Children of immigrant parents constitute increasing proportions of populations served by mental health, educational, medical, and welfare systems in many societies. In addition, assessment of needs for child mental health services is a significant public health goal around the world. To meet these challenges for assessment of behavioral and emotional problems in diverse societies, there is a need for instruments that are easily administered, scored, and interpreted by a wide range of practitioners and researchers and that demonstrate multicultural robustness. Multicultural robustness is established through systematic research demonstrating that an instrument performs similarly across many societies in terms of features such as reliability, internal consistency, factor structure, scale scores, and associations of scores with age and gender (Geisinger, 1994).In the early stages of multicultural research, mental health specialists in a society often evaluate instruments developed in other societies for use in their own. If an instrument is in a foreign language, a translated version is created, and then an independent back-translation into the original language is done to verify that the translation captures the meaning of the original. Ideally, researchers then collect data using the instrument with a large general population sample. When data are available from many societies, they can be analyzed together to compare variations between societies and within societies. Establishing the multicultural robustness of an instrument is thus an incremental process using an etic approach to research, whereby the same standardized assessment instrument is used in different societies. This contrasts with an emic approach to research, whereby the meanings of the constructs under study are explored within each society.

Detecting Psychiatric Disorders in Preschoolers: Screening With the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

“…The prevalence in the present population 11 was in line with Scandinavian findings [22][23][24][25] and fairly low compared to other preschool studies in the US. [6][7][8][9][10] Thus, to increase the generalizability of our results, we will determine screening efficiencies for the most common range of prevalences.…”

Security in Father-child Relationship and Behavior Problems in Sexually Abused Children

“…Results were in line with prior studies that identified intensity and type of children's behavior problems to be related to their age (Jaser et al 2005), sex (Rescorla et al 2007), maternal level of psychological distress (Frye and Garber 2005) and perception of security to both parents (Rakow et al 2011). Various studies stated that boys tended to display more externalized behaviors (Rescorla et al, 2007) as found in the present study (main scale and both delinquent and aggressive behaviors), being more withdrawn, having more social and attention problems.…”

“…Various studies stated that boys tended to display more externalized behaviors (Rescorla et al, 2007) as found in the present study (main scale and both delinquent and aggressive behaviors), being more withdrawn, having more social and attention problems. Findings from a review by Romano and De Luca (2001) on the impact of CSA among boys and girls on later psychological functioning suggested that in comparison to girls, boys were likely to experience more episodes of abuse and more violent CSA.…”

“…In addition, Michiels et al (2010) found in a non-clinical sample of 552 fourth through six graders that perception of security to fathers added to the prediction of emotional difficulties and outweighed the same factor within mother-child relationships. Hence, our findings revealed that for a variety of symptoms, the relationship with the paternal figure may play a central role in the course of recovery following abuse.Results were in line with prior studies that identified intensity and type of children's behavior problems to be related to their age (Jaser et al 2005), sex (Rescorla et al 2007), maternal level of psychological distress (Frye and Garber 2005) and perception of security to both parents (Rakow et al 2011). Various studies stated that boys tended to display more externalized behaviors (Rescorla et al, 2007) as found in the present study (main scale and both delinquent and aggressive behaviors), being more withdrawn, having more social and attention problems.…”

Close Friendships and Mental Health of Korean American Adolescents: The Moderating Effect of Personality

“…The YSR consists of 112 items using a 3-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating more mental health problems. The YSR has demonstrated reliability and validity across various populations including Korea as well as Western countries Rescorla et al, 2007). Excellent Cronbach's alpha scores for the Total Problems scale (α = .93 -.95) have been established (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001;Ebesutani et al, 2011;Ivanova et al, 2007;Rescorla et al, 2007).…”