Symptom differentiation of anxiety and depression across youth development and clinic-referred/nonreferred samples: An examination of competing factor structures of the Child Behavior Checklist DSM-oriented scales.
This study examined the psychometric properties of the DSM-oriented scales of the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, Dumenci, & Rescorla, 2003) using confirmatory factor analysis to compare the six-factor structure of the DSM-oriented scales to competing models consistent with developmental theories of symptom differentiation. We tested these models on both clinic-referred (N = 757) and school-based, nonreferred (N = 713) samples of youths in order to assess the generalizability of the factorial structures. Although previous research has supported the fit of the six-factor DSM-oriented structure in a normative sample of youths ages 7 to 18 (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001), tripartite model research indicates that anxiety and depressive symptomology are less differentiated among children compared to adolescents (Jacques & Mash, 2004). We thus examined the relative fit of a six- and a five-factor model (collapsing anxiety and depression) with younger (ages 7-10) and older (ages 11-18) youth subsamples. The results revealed that the six-factor model fit the best in all samples except among younger nonclinical children. The results extended the generalizability of the rationally derived six-factor structure of the DSM-oriented scales to clinic-referred youths and provided further support to the notion that younger children in nonclinical samples exhibit less differentiated symptoms of anxiety and depression.
University of Hawaii, Hilo.
Maggi
M
Price
Charmaine
C
Higa-McMillan
Chad
C
Ebesutani
Kelsie
K
Okamura
Brad J
BJ
Nakamura
Bruce F
BF
Chorpita
John
J
Weisz
D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D057189:Checklist; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011594:Psychometrics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires