Epidemiological comparisons of problems and positive qualities reported by adolescents in 24 countries.
In this study, the authors compared ratings of behavioral and emotional problems and positive qualities on the Youth Self-Report (T. M. Achenbach & L. A. Rescorla, 2001) by adolescents in general population samples from 24 countries (N = 27,206). For problem scales, country effect sizes (ESs) ranged from 3% to 9%, whereas those for gender and age ranged from less than 1% to 2%. Scores were significantly higher for girls than for boys on Internalizing Problems and significantly higher for boys than for girls on Externalizing Problems. Bicountry correlations for mean problem item scores averaged .69. For Total Problems, 17 of 24 countries scored within one standard deviation of the overall mean of 35.3. In the 19 countries for which parent ratings were also available, the mean of 20.5 for parent ratings was far lower than the self-report mean of 34.0 in the same 19 countries (d = 2.5). Results indicate considerable consistency across 24 countries in adolescents' self-reported problems but less consistency for positive qualities.
Rescorla
Leslie
L
Department of Psychology, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010-2899, USA. lrescorl@brynmawr.edu
Achenbach
Thomas M
TM
Ivanova
Masha Y
MY
Dumenci
Levent
L
Almqvist
Fredrik
F
Bilenberg
Niels
N
Bird
Hector
H
Broberg
Anders
A
Dobrean
Anca
A
Döpfner
Manfred
M
Erol
Nese
N
Forns
Maria
M
Hannesdottir
Helga
H
Kanbayashi
Yasuko
Y
Lambert
Michael C
MC
Leung
Patrick
P
Minaei
Asghar
A
Mulatu
Mesfin S
MS
Novik
Torunn S
TS
Oh
Kyung-Ja
KJ
Roussos
Alexandra
A
Sawyer
Michael
M
Simsek
Zeynep
Z
Steinhausen
Hans-Christoph
HC
Weintraub
Sheila
S
Metzke
Christa Winkler
CW
Wolanczyk
Tomasz
T
Zilber
Nelly
N
Zukauskiene
Rita
R
Verhulst
Frank
F
D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D015995:Prevalence