Children's self-reports and parents' reports of internalising and externalising problems in Chinese and Anglo-Celtic children in Australia

Abstract

The Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and Youth Self-Report (YSR) are widely used measures of internalising and externalising problems in children and adolescents, but cross-cultural differences in these problems have not been examined in Australian children of Chinese and Anglo-Celtic ancestry. Fifty-nine Chinese (27 boys and 32 girls) and 65 Anglo-Celtic Australian (35 boys and 30 girls) children aged 10-13 years completed the YSR, and one of their parents completed the CBCL. Cross-informant agreement between these two measures was also examined. No differences were found between the Chinese and Anglo-Celtic groups on parents' and children's ratings on any syndrome or overall scales. The overall level of agreement between YSR and CBCL scores was poor in the Anglo-Celtic group (intraclass correlation coefficient for total problems=0.33), but there was no agreement between these scores in the Chinese group. Results highlight the need to obtain multiple sources of information in assessments of mental health problems in children from different cultural backgrounds. © 2011 The Australian Psychological Society.