ARTICLES
Epidemiological Comparisons of American and Dutch Adolescents' Self-Reports

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Abstract

Objective

To determine the cross-cultural applicability of self-reports of adolescents' problems and competencies.

Method

Youth Self-Reports (YSRs) were completed by 803 American and 803 Dutch nonreferred adolescents matched by gender, age, and socioeconomic status.

Results

Comparisons revealed that American adolescents reported many more problems than did Dutch adolescents. This finding contrasts sharply with the American/Dutch similarities in parents' and teachers' reports of children's problem behaviors. Competence scores also were much higher for the American than the Dutch sample.

Conclusions

Cutpoints for discriminating the normal and the clinical range of YSR scores need to be adjusted to local norms for the Dutch sample. Cultural factors may be responsible for the cross-national differences. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry, 1993, 32, 6:1135–1144.

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    This research was financially supported by grants from the Sophia Foundation for Medical Research, the Dutch National Programme for Stimulation of Health Research, and NIMH Grant 40305. We wish to thank Dr. Willem Arrindell for his helpful comments.

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