Behavioral and Emotional Problems Among Italian Children and Adolescents Aged 4 to 18 Years as Reported by Parents and Teachers
Abstract
The aims of this study were the Italian standardization of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/4-18) and the Teacher's Report Form (TRF), the analysis of the internal consistency of the two instruments, and the evaluation of the agreement between parents' and teachers' ratings. A group of 1423 parents and 1464 teachers of children and adolescents aged 4 to 18 years, from three different provinces of Northern Italy, were randomly recruited. Boys scored higher than girls on the Externalizing scales on both CBCL and TRF, while there were no significant differences between the two sexes on the Internalizing scales. In general, internalizing problems increased with age, whereas externalizing behaviors decreased, mainly through a reduction of aggressive problems in older subjects. For most scales, low socioeconomic status was associated with high problem scores. Most scales of the CBCL and the TRF showed a satisfactory internal consistency, with higher α coefficients for overt behaviors. A low - to - moderate parents' and teachers' agreement was found, with the higher correlation found for the Attention Problems scale. Overall, the figures of this first standardization are in line with the results of most studies carried out in Western and Eastern countries, evidencing a good applicability of Achenbach's instruments in Italy.
References
Achenbach, T.M. (1991a). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist 4/18 and 1991 Profile. . University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry, Burlington.Achenbach, T.M. (1991b). Manual for the Teacher Report Form and 1991 Profile. . University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry, Burlington.Achenbach, T.M. (1991c). Manual for the Youth Self Report and 1991 Profile. . University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry, Burlington.Achenbach, T.M. McConaughy, S.H. Howell, C.T. (1987). Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: Implications of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity.. Psychological Bulletin, 2, 213– 2321999). . University of Vermont.
(Bengi-Arslan, L. Verhulst, F.C. Van der Ende, J. Erol, N. (1997). Understanding childhood (problem) behaviors from a cultural perspective: Comparison of problem behaviors and competencies in Turkish immigrant, Turkish, and Dutch children.. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 32, 477– 484Bilenberg, N. (1999). The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and related material: Standardization and validation in Danish population based and clinically based samples.. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 100, 2– 52Camerini, G.B. Sannicola, A.M. Seidenari, F. Mariotti, M. Caffo, E. (2001). Utilizzazione della TRF e della CBCL per individuare disturbi dell'attenzione e disturbi depressivi in una popolazione scolastica a rischio ‘Utilization of the TRF and the CBCL for the identification of attention and depressive disorders in an at-risk school population’.. Giornale di Neuropsichiatria dell'Età Evolutiva, , 21– 37Carter, A.S. Grigorenko, E.L. Pauls, D.L. (1995). A Russian adaptation of the Child Behavior Checklist: Psychometric properties and associations with child and maternal affective symptomatology and family functioning.. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 23, 661– 684Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.).. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Crijnen, A.A.M. Achenbach, T.M. Verhulst, F.C. (1997). Comparisons of problem reported by parents of children in 12 cultures: Total problems, externalizing, and internalizing.. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 1269– 1277Crijnen, A.A.M. Achenbach, T.M. Verhulst, F.C. (1999). Problems reported by parents of children in multiple cultures: The Child Behavior Checklist syndrome constructs.. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 569– 574Cronbach, L.J. (1951). Coefficient α and the internal structure of tests.. Psychometrika, 16, 297– 334Fitzpatrick, C. Deehan, A. (1999). Competencies and problems of Irish children and adolescents.. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 8, 17– 23Legge 675 del 31.12.1996). “Tutela delle persone e di altri soggetti rispetto al trattamento dei dati personali” ‘The protection of people and other subjects in the relationship to management of personal data’..
(Hollingshead, A.B. (1975). Four-factor index of social status. . Unpublished manuscript, Yale University, Department of Sociology, New Haven, CT.Iacovelli, L. Romani, M. (1998). La rilevazione dei disturbi di personalità in età evolutiva: Contributo preliminare ‘Detecting personality disorders in the developmental age: A preliminary contribution’.. Psichiatria dell'Infanzia e dell'Adolescenza, 65, 727– 7322000a). Statistiche delle scuole secondarie superiori anno scolastico 1997/98 ‘Statistics of secondary high school. School year 1997/1998’.. Annuario 9, ISTAT, Roma.
(2000b). Annuario statistico italiano 2000 ‘Italian statistical yearbook’.. ISTAT, Roma.
(1996). Istituto centrale di statistica. Classificazione dei comuni secondo le caratteristiche urbane e rurali. Note e relazioni anno 1986 - n2, ‘Central Statistics Institute: Classification of municipalities according to urban and rural characteristics. Notes and relations for the year 1986’.. ISTAT, Roma.
(Lambert, M.C. Knight, F. Taylor, R. Achenbach, T. (1994). Epidemiology of behavioral and emotional problems among children of Jamaica and the United States: Parent reports for ages 6 to 11.. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 22, 113– 128Larsson, B. Frisk, M. (1999). Social competence and emotional/behavior problems in 6-16-year-old Swedish school children.. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 8, 24– 33Liu, X. Kurita, H. Guo, C. Miyake, Y. Ze, J. Cao, H. (1999). Prevalence and risk factors of behavioral and emotional problems among Chinese children aged 6 through 11 years.. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 38, 708– 715Liu, X. Kurita, H. Guo, C. Tachimori, H. Ze, J. Okawa, M. (2000). Behavioral and emotional problems in Chinese children: Teacher reports for ages 6 to 11.. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 41, 253– 260MacDonald, V.M. Tsiantis, J. Achenbach, T.M. Motti-Stefanidi, F. Richardson, S.C. (1995). Competencies and problems reported by parents of Greek and American children, ages 6-11.. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 4, 1– 13McKelvey, R.S. Davies, L.C. Sang, D.L. Pickering, K.R. Tu, H.C. (1999). Problems and competencies reported by parents of Vietnamese children in Hanoi.. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 38, 731– 737Novik, T.S. (1999). Validity of the Child Behavior Checklist in a Norwegian sample.. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 8, 247– 254Roussos, A. Karantanos, G. Richardson, C. Hartman, C. Karajiannis, D. Kyprianos, S. Lazaratou, H. Mahaira, O. Tassi, M. Zoubou, V. (1999). Achenbach's Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher's Report Form in a normative sample of Greek children 6-12 years old.. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 8, 165– 172Rubio Stipec, M. Bird, H. Canino, G. Gould, M. (1990). The internal consistency and concurrent validity of a Spanish translation of the Child Behavior Checklist.. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 18, 393– 406Slobodskaya, H.R. (1999). Competence, emotional and behavioral problems in Russian adolescents.. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 8, 173– 1801990). SPSS advanced statistics user's guide. . Chicago: SPSS Inc.
(Steinhausen, H.C. Winkler Metzke, C. Meier, M. Kannenberg, R. (1997). Behavioral and emotional problems reported by parents for ages 6 to 17 in a Swiss epidemiological study.. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 6, 136– 141Verhulst, F.C. Akkerhuis, G.W. Althaus, M. (1985). Mental health in Dutch children: (1) A cross-cultural comparison.. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 72, 1– 108Verhulst, F.C. Koot, H.M. Berden, G.F. (1990). Four-year follow-up of an epidemiological sample.. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 29, 440– 448Weine, A.M. Phillips, J.S. Achenbach, T.M. (1995). Behavioral and emotional problems among Chinese and American children: Parent and teacher reports for ages 6 to 13.. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 23, 619– 639Yang, H-J. Soong, W-T. Chiangs, C-N. Chen, W.J. (2000). Competence and behavioral/emotional problems among Taiwanese adolescents as reported by parents and teachers.. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39, 232– 239