Validation of CBCL depression scores of adolescents in three independent datasets

Abstract

The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development dataset (ABCD) is a popular source of data for research on children and adolescents, aged 9-11 at baseline. Depression is frequently first diagnosed in adolescents, is prevalent and carries heavy burden, thus ABCD provides an attractive opportunity to research depression in adolescents. The only continuous measure of depression provided in ABCD is the parent-report Child Behavior Checklist’s DSM-5-Oriented Affective Problems scale (CBCL-Aff). It is important for depression research in the ABCD dataset that the CBCL-Aff is a valid measure of depression in this age group. We, therefore, tested the sensitivity and specificity of the CBCL-Aff for depression in the ABCD data. CBCL-Aff agreed with parent-report of children’s symptoms but disagreed with child self-report. To resolve this disagreement, we further confirmed our results in two independent datasets, aged 9-12: the Healthy Brain Network (HBN) and the Brazilian High Risk Cohort Study (BHRC). Both datasets provided clinician-report depression diagnoses, which we used as a gold standard. CBCL-Aff successfully predicted clinician-report diagnoses, supporting its validity as a continuous measure of depression. As parents and children disagreed on the child’s symptoms, we discuss implications of using a parent-report only measure of child depression.

Co-existence of negative and positive associations between cognition and intergenerational psychiatric symptoms reveal necessity of socioeconomic and clinical enrichment

“…For each symptom, parents/guardians can report either 0 for “Not True”, 1 for “Somewhat or sometimes true” or 2 for “Very true or often true” with respect to their child. Parent-reported child symptoms were utilized due to evidence of a stronger correspondence between clinician evaluation and parental report than clinician evaluation and child self-report 59 . Similarly to general cognition ( g ), we utilize a general psychopathology factor ( p) score.…”

“…Internalizing symptoms are difficult to accurately report, and parental difficulties in reporting their children's internalizing symptoms are well-documented 73 . Although child-reported psychopathology is not necessarily more accurate than parental report of child psychopathology 59 , parents can certainly miss or misunderstand symptoms experienced by their children 74 . It is possible that in the current study, a higher degree of deviance explained in child cognition by parental internalizing symptoms might be more attributable to measurement accuracy than mental health mechanisms.…”

Poverty, Brain Development, and Mental Health: Progress, Challenges, and Paths Forward

“…The expected result is that the sample will be enriched with many young people with a psychiatric diagnosis and elevated symptoms. Another advantage is that participants undergo a clinician-administered K-SADS along with clinical consensus, which is thought to yield a more accurate diagnosis (Zelenina et al 2023). In addition, with people between the ages of 5 and 21 being recruited, the project has a broad age range, making it possible to cross-sectionally examine how clinical conditions relate to brain function at different ages of development.…”