Abstract
The relative effects of maternal depression, child gender, and child psychiatric status on mothers' ratings of their children were assessed in a study of the validity of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Both maternal depression and gender were found to be significantly associated with mothers' ratings of their children on the CBCL. Nevertheless, mothers' ratings continued to differentiate groups of children with and without psychiatric problems even after the variance accounted for by maternal depression and child gender was removed. These findings support the criterion validity of the CBCL, and point also to the importance of assessing parents as part of the clinical evaluation of children.
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This project was supported in part by BRSG S07 RR05775 awarded by the Biomedical Research Support Grant Program, Division of Research Resources, National Institutes of Health, to the Langley Porter Institute. The authors wish to acknowledge Irving Philips, M.D., and Delmont Morrison, Ph.D., for their roles in facilitating collection of some of the data on which this study is based. Preparation of this manuscript was supported in part by an Individual Faculty Development Award granted to the first author by the Grete Simpson Memorial Fund, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco.
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Friedlander, S., Weiss, D.S. & Traylor, J. Assessing the influence of maternal depression on the validity of the child behavior checklist. J Abnorm Child Psychol 14, 123–133 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00917228
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00917228