The child behavior checklist

1. BY
Muhammad Musawar Ali
MPHIL, ICAP

2. CBCL checklist:
 Report concerning child behavior and adjustment can be obtained using CBCL.

3. Purpose
To obtain caregiver report of children's competencies
and behavior problems in a standardized format.

4. CBCL History
 Developed by Thomas Achenbac
 Developed in 2001

5. Conceptual Organization
 The Child Behavior Checklist/4-16 (CBCL/4-16)
was the first of what has become a multi-axial
empirically based set of measures for assessing
children from parent, teacher, and self-reports
 In 1991, The CBCL/4-16 was re-normed to include
children up to 18 years of age (becoming CBCL/4-
18)

6. Purpose
For Diagnostic Purpose.
Can be used to create a profile that gives the clinician
an overall picture of the variety and degree of the
child behavioral problem.
Assessing behavioral problems in children and
adolescents.

7. Used to ask parents, teachers, and sometimes the
youths themselves to rate the presence or absence of a
wide variety of child behaviors or to rate the frequency
and intensity of these behaviors.

8.  This instruments include measurement of the following
eight constructs or syndromes: Social Withdrawal, Somatic
Complaints, Anxiety/Depression, Social Problems, Thought
Problems, Attention Problems, Delinquent Behavior, and
Aggressive Behavior

9.  In addition to focusing on a child’s behavior as
defined by one of the eight syndrome scales, the
CBCL, Teacher Report Form, and Youth Self
Report Form also allow the examination of two
broad groupings of syndromes: Internalizing
Problems and Externalizing Problems.

10. Internalizing Problems combines the Social
Withdrawal, Somatic Complaints, and
Anxiety/Depression scales, while
 Externalizing problems combines the Delinquent
Behavior and Aggressive Behavior scale

11. Items
 The CBCL/4-18 contains 120 competence items grouped into 3 scales
(Activities, Social, and School)

12. Materials
CBCL Manual, forms and computerized
scoring programs
Pencil/ Pen
Can be applied age from 4 to 18 years old.
Used in treatment settings & schools.

13. Time Required
 Twenty-five to thirty minutes.

14. Administration Method
 The CBCL is designed to be completed independently by the
caregiver. It requires fifth grade reading ability. The form
can also be administered orally by an interviewer who
records the caregiver’s answers.
 It can also be self administered for young childrens.

15. Score Types
 Items are coded from 0 to 2.
 Raw scores can be converted to age Standardized scores (T
scores having a mean = 50 and SD = 10) that can be
compared with scores obtained from normative samples of
children within the same broad age range

16. Score Interpretation
 For the syndrome scales, T scores less than 67 are
considered in the normal range, T scores ranging
from 67-70 are considered to be borderline clinical,
and T scores above 70 are in the clinical range
(Achenbach, 1991)

17.  For Total Problems, Externalizing Problems, and
Internalizing Problems, T scores less than 60 are considered
in the normal range, 60-63 represent borderline scores, and
scores greater than 63 are in the clinical range

18. Reliability and Validity
 Reliability and Validity has been documented in numerous
studies.