Testing the 8-Syndrome Structure of the Child Behavior Checklist in 30 Societies

Abstract

There is a growing need for multicultural collaboration in child mental health services, training, and research. To facilitate such collaboration, this study tested the 8-syndrome structure of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) in 30 societies. Parents' CBCL ratings of 58,051 6- to 18-year-olds were subjected to confirmatory factor analyses, which were conducted separately for each society. Societies represented Asia; Africa; Australia; the Caribbean; Eastern, Western, Southern, and Northern Europe; the Middle East; and North America. Fit indices strongly supported the correlated 8-syndrome structure in each of 30 societies. The results support use of the syndromes in diverse societies.

Notes

Note: RMSEA = Root Mean Square Error of Approximation; CFI = Comparative Fit Index; TLI = Tucker-Lewis index.

^a Items with negative residual variances.

^b The number is the item's number on the Child Behavior Checklist.

^a Loadings  1 are for the 5 out of 6,600 estimated parameters that were outside of the admissable parameter space.

Note: Values in italics are descriptive statistics for syndromes.

^a Loadings  1 are for the 5 out of 6,600 estimated parameters that were outside of that admissable parameter space.