Posted
March 24, 2008
CBCL/6-18
Syndrome Structure for Chinese Girls Adopted by Canadian
and U.S. Parents
Confirmatory
factor analyses (CFA) have shown that parent, teacher, and
self-ratings in many societies form patterns corresponding
to the syndromes derived from ratings mainly of U.S. children
by U.S. raters (Ivanova, 2007a, b, c). Dedrick, Tan, and Marfo
(2008) tested the CBCL/6-18 syndrome structure for 516 6-
to 15-year-old girls born in China but adopted by Canadian
and U.S. parents, who rated them on the CBCL/6-18. The parents
who rated their children lived in various parts of Canada
and 49 of the 50 U.S. states. This sample provided a particularly
stringent test of the generalizability of the CBCL/6-18 syndromes
for the following reasons: (a) The girls came
from a very different gene pool than their parents; (b)
many of the girls had lived for long periods in adverse environments
that differed greatly from their adoptive homes; and (c)
parents who had gone to great trouble and expense to adopt
children from a very different country might view their children's
problems differently than birth parents do. Findings for adopted
Chinese girls are also important because tens of thousands
of Chinese girls are being adopted by North American parents.
CFA revealed good fit between parents' ratings of their adopted
daughters and the CBCL/6-18 8-syndrome structure, with an
RMSEA = .047. Additional CFA revealed good fit between the
parents' ratings and the second-order Internalizing and Externalizing
groupings of syndromes, with the RMSEA also = .047. The authors
concluded that their results "support Achenbach and Rescorla's
(2001) eight-factor correlated model and second-order structure
consisting of Internalizing and Externalizing problems"
(p. 74).
References:
Dedrick, R.F., Tan, T.X., & Marfo, K. (2008). Factor structure
of the Child Behavior Checklist/6-18 in a sample of girls
adopted from China. Psychological Assessment, 20, 70-75.
Ivanova,
M.I., et al. (2007a). Testing the 8-syndrome structure of
the Child Behavior Checklist in 30 societies. Journal of
Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 36, 405-417.
Ivanova,
M.I., et al. (2007b). Testing the Teacher's Report Form syndromes
in 20 societies. School Psychology Review, 36, 468-483.
Ivanova,
M.I., et al. (2007c). The generalizability of the Youth Self-Report
syndrome structure in 23 societies. Journal of Consulting
and Clinical Psychology, 75, 729-738.
