Confirmatory
Factor Analysis (CFA) of Dutch Group Care Workers’ CBCL
Ratings of Children in
Residential
Treatment
ASEBA
forms are completed by many kinds of informants in many settings
throughout the world. The CBCL is designed to be completed by
people who serve as surrogate parents in institutional settings,
as well as by biological, adoptive, and foster parents. To test
the factor structure of group care workers’ CBCL ratings,
a team of Dutch researchers (Abrecht et al., 2001) performed
confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) of CBCL scores for 846 4-18-year-olds
residing in diverse psychiatric and child welfare treatment
facilities in the Netherlands. Many of the children had mental
or physical disabilities, as well as behavioral and emotional
problems. CFA supported the eight cross-informant syndromes
scored from the CBCL, as well as the broad Internalizing and
Externalizing groupings of syndromes. Comparisons with another
Dutch CFA and an American CFA showed comparable levels of support
for the eight syndromes. Although not all items or syndromes
received equally strong support, the authors concluded that,
despite differences in culture, language, treatment setting,
and the different roles of group care workers versus parents,
“The interchangeability of the group care worker scales
and their parent-based counterparts supports what these professionals
have been doing for years.”
Reference: Albrecht, G., Veerman, J.W., Damen,
H., & Kroes, G. (2001). The Child Behavior Checklist for
group care workers: A study regarding the factor structure.
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 29, 83-89.
