Using the Child Behavior Checklist With African American and Caucasian American Adopted Youth

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the cross-ethnic measurement equivalence of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) for 6- to 18-year-olds (2001, parent version) using a sample of African American special needs adopted children, along with a comparison group of Caucasian American special needs adopted children. Reliability and multiple sources of postdictive criterion-related validity were analyzed, and a confirmatory factor analysis of the CBCL within and between participating groups was performed. The results indicate that for practical purposes, the CBCL items appear reliable but not valid in terms of assessing the mental health profiles of both African American and Caucasian youth. These findings are significant because they have important implications for the practical utility of the CBCL in the field for adopted youth.

The Factor Structure of Child Behavior Checklist Scores With Elementary School Students Referred to Counseling Within Low-Income Communities

“…In addition, the results identified lower internal consistency reliability for the CBCL/6-18 scores as compared with the norm sample (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001), with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients in the range of α = .65–.88. Mano and colleagues’ findings align with Tyson and colleagues’ (2011) result, as these researchers reported that the robustness of the CBCL/6-18 may be questionable with minority samples and that some of the factors measured by the CBCL/6-18 may not have the same meaning across cultural groups.…”

“…Specifically, caregivers' perception of their children's mental health functioning through rating scales (a) complements other sources of information such as direct observation; (b) provides access to contexts not available to other professionals working with the child (e.g., clinicians or educators); (c) serves as cost-effective collected sources of data; and (d) offers a dimensional approach to classifying patterns of behaviors (Al-Hendawi et al, 2016). However, researchers have questioned the evidence of reliability and validity of these assessment instruments when measuring ethnic minority children and children from low-income families, calling for further examination of these measures (Tyson et al, 2011).…”

“…Moreover, few reports have been published on the factor structure of the CBCL/6-18 scores with American samples, whereas many have been tested with samples outside of the United States (Dedrick et al, 2008; Dumenci et al, 2004). In an attempt to address the limited research examining the factor structure of CBCL/6-18 scores in the United States, Tyson and colleagues (2011) examined the cross-ethnic measurement equivalence of the CBCL/6-18 with a sample of adopted youth in the United States who had special needs (African American children: n = 295; Caucasian children: n = 615). Results from a CFA identified that the CBCL/6-18 data for the full sample did not have an acceptable model root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) fit criteria (0.90; Byrne, 2016; Kline, 2015).…”

Are Non-intellectually Disabled Black Youth with ASD Less Impaired on Parent Report than Their White Peers?

“…These questionnaires may be less culturally relevant for Black parents, who may observe these behaviors, but perhaps not see them as problematic. Indeed, prior studies of Black parents’ responses to the CBCL have noted ethnic differences in applicability of the CBCL items to Black parents’ concerns about their children’s behavior (Lambert et al 2002), as well as poor construct validity (Mano et al 2009; Tyson et al 2011). To our knowledge, no studies have yet been conducted on ethnic differences in parent reporting on the BRIEF or the Vineland-II, outside of the standardization samples.…”

Assessing Social Anxiety in African American Youth using the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children

“…As reviewed by Pina, Gonzales, Holly, Zerr, and Wynne (in press), several measures have failed to provide equivalent information across ethnic groups, including for African American youth. Configural invariance in a community sample of White and African American youth, for example, was not supported for the Child Behavior Checklist (internalizing/externalizing scales; Tyson, Teasley, & Ryan, 2011). Moreover, among African Americans anxiety seems to manifest itself largely in terms of physical symptoms (Neal & Turner, 1991) and measures such as the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (La Greca & Lopez, 1998) that do not include physiological anxiety items might be under-identifying socially anxious African American youth.…”