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Parent reports on behaviour and competencies among 6–11-year-old French Children

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Abstract

Behaviour problems and competencies were studied in a community sample of 1653 French 6 to 11 year old children, and a clinically referred sample of 437 children of the same age group. Parental reports were collected with the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL). All scores from the CBCL were found to discriminate clinic and non-clinic children. Similarly, clinical status accounted for a significant proportion of the variance for most of the individual items, when the effects of age, sex and socio-economic status were controlled for in convariance analyses. The socio-demographic variables had much smaller effects, and, when compared with other studies, our results support the cross-cultural validity of this parental questionnaire.

Résumé

Les problèmes de comportement et de compétence sociale ont été étudiés dans un échantillon de population de 1653 enfants français âgés de 6 à 11 ans et un échantillon clinique de référence de 437 enfants du même âge.

Les informations des parents ont été collectées par le Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL). Tous les scores du CBCL permettent de discriminer les enfants cliniques et les enfants non-cliniques. De même, le status clinique explique une proportion significative de la variance pour la plupart des items individuels quand les effets de l'âge, du sexe et du statut socio-économique sont contrôlés par des analyses de co-variances. Les variables socio-démographiques ont des effets beaucoup plus discrets et par comparaison avec les autres études les résultats confirment la validité trans-culturelle de ce questionnaire parental.

Zusammenfassung

Verhaltensprobleme und Fähigkeiten wurden in einer nicht klinischen Stichprobe von 1.653 französischen Kindern im Alter von 6 bis 11 und einer klinischen Stichprobe von 437 Kindern des gleichen Alters untersucht. Die Eltern schätzten ihre Kinder mit der Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) ein. Die klinischen und nicht klinischen Gruppen wiesen Unterschiede in allen Items des CBCL auf. Der klinische Status erklärte ebenfalls einen signifikanten Anteil der Varianz der meisten Items, wenn im Rahmen einer Kovarianzanalyse die Auswirkungen von Alter, Geschlecht und sozioökonomischen Status kontrolliert wurden. Die soziodemographischen Variablen hatten viel kleinere Effekte. Unsere Studie bestätigt zusammen mit anderen Untersuchungen die transkulturelle Validität dieses Elternfragebogens.

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  1. Centre Alfred Binet, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), 76 Avenue Edison, 75013, Paris, France

    Eric Fombonne

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Fombonne, E. Parent reports on behaviour and competencies among 6–11-year-old French Children. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 1, 233–243 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02094184

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