Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine whether profile patterns derived from parents' ratings of clinically referred boys were significantly associated with differences in functioning identified via teachers' ratings, direct observations, cognitive tests, and personality measures. Subjects were 185 6- to 11-year-old boys who were referred to an outpatient psychiatric service or school psychologist and whose Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) profiles correlated significantly with types previously identified through cluster analysis. Comparisons of boys classified by six CBCL profile types and Internalizing versus Externalizing groupings of these types showed many differences that are not apt to be evident in linear correlations between the different sources of data. The findings provide a basis for research on differences between profile patterns with respect to etiology, course, prognosis, and responsiveness to interventions. They also indicate the potential importance of higher-order patterns of functioning that extend across multiple sources of data.
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This research was supported by grants from the Spencer Foundation, the W. T. Grant Foundation, and NIMH Grant 40305. The authors are grateful to Heather McCollum and Nancy Pandina for serving as observers, and to the parents, children, teachers, and principals who made this study possible.
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McConaughy, S.H., Achenbach, T.M. & Gent, C.L. Multiaxial empirically based assessment: Parent, teacher, observational, cognitive, and personality correlates of Child Behavior profile types for 6- to 11-year-old boys. J Abnorm Child Psychol 16, 485–509 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00914262
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00914262