title: Assessment of dysregulated children using the Child Behavior Checklist: a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.
abstract: Disorders of self-regulatory behavior are common reasons for referral to child and adolescent clinicians. Here, the authors sought to compare 2 methods of empirically based assessment of children with problems in self-regulatory behavior. Using parental reports on 2,028 children (53% boys) from a U.S. national probability sample of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; T. M. Achenbach & L. A. Rescorla, 2001), the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was applied to compare scores on the Posttraumatic Stress Problems Scale (PTSP) of the CBCL with the CBCL Dysregulation Profile (DP), identified using latent class analysis of the Attention Problems, Aggressive Behavior, and Anxious/Depressed scales of the CBCL. The CBCL-PTSP score demonstrated an area under the curve of between .88 and .91 for predicting membership in the CBCL-DP profile for boys and for girls. These findings suggest that the CBCL-PTSP, which others have shown does not uniquely identify children who have been traumatized, does identify the same profile of behavior as the CBCL-DP. Therefore, the authors recommend renaming the CBCL-PTSP the Dysregulation Short Scale and provide some guidelines for the use of the CBCL-DP scale and the CBCL-PTSP in clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Vermont Center for Children, Youth, and Families, University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT 05401, USA. ralthoff@uvm.edu
authors.forename: Robert R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Althoff
authors.forename: Lynsay A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Ayer
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Rettew
authors.forename: James J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Hudziak
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D057189:Checklist / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D002666:Psychology, Child; D011594:Psychometrics; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012737:Sex Factors; D012927:Social Control, Informal
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