Biomedical subjects

Thomas M Achenbach

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas M Achenbach.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Explaining the link between low socioeconomic status and psychopathology: testing two mechanisms of the social causation hypothesis.

Two mechanisms of the hypothesized social causation of psychopathology--differential incidence and cumulative prevalence--were tested over 9 years in a nationally representative sample of 1,075 children and youths, ages 8-17 at Time 1 (1986). Analyses using parental responses on behavior checklists at 4 time points showed significant increases in clinical elevations for those of the lowest socioeconomic status (SES) on anxious/depressed, somatic complaints, thought problems, delinquent, and aggressive syndromes. This SES-linked differential incidence supports the social causation hypothesis that factors associated with SES contribute to variations in levels of psychological problems. SES-linked differential cumulative prevalence was found for withdrawn and somatic complaints; this finding indicates that low-SES cases do not improve as much as do middle- and high-SES cases, which results in greater accumulation of low-SES cases.

Aggression↗

PubMed2005

Assessment of adult psychopathology: meta-analyses and implications of cross-informant correlations.

Assessment of adult psychopathology relies heavily on self-reports. To determine how well self-reports agree with reports by "informants" who know the person being assessed, the authors examined 51,000 articles published over 10 years in 52 peer-reviewed journals for correlations between self-reports and "informants" reports. Qualifying correlations were found in 108 (0.2%) of the articles. When self-reports and informant reports were obtained with parallel instruments, mean cross-informant correlations were .681 for substance use, .428 for internalizing, and .438 for externalizing problems. When based on different instruments, the mean cross-informant correlation was .304. The moderate sizes of the correlations argue for systematically obtaining multi-informant data. National survey findings were used to illustrate practical ways to obtain and use such data.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

DSM-oriented scales and statistically based syndromes for ages 18 to 59: linking taxonomic paradigms to facilitate multitaxonomic approaches.

We used behavioral and emotional problem items to construct (a) nosologically based Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) oriented scales from experts' ratings of the items' consistency with DSM-IV (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) diagnostic categories, and (b) statistically based syndromes from factor analyses of adults' self-ratings and ratings of adults by people who knew them (N = 4,628). Quantified, operationally defined, and normed DSM-oriented scales and statistically based syndromes facilitate multitaxonomic approaches to the assessment of adult psychopathology. Psychometric properties and cross-informant correlations were similar for DSM-oriented scales and statistically derived syndromes. Statistical associations between phenotypically similar DSM-oriented scales and statistically based syndromes were moderate to strong. Multitaxonomic approaches can avoid reification of provisional taxa that may result from excessive reliance on a single taxonomic paradigm.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Advancing assessment of children and adolescents: commentary on evidence-based assessment of child and adolescent disorders.

This article addresses the following cross-cutting issues evident in the special section of this issue: (a) current diagnoses do not provide adequate validity criteria; (b) the heterogeneity and comorbidity of target problems raise taxonomic challenges; (c) accurate assessment requires integration of multisource data; (d) developmental variations must be accommodated; (e) appropriate norms are needed; and (f) categorical and quantitative approaches are not incompatible. Less evident in the special section articles but equally important are the need to cope with multicultural issues, avoid premature closure regarding diagnostic labels, assess caregivers, and standardize broad-spectrum assessment procedures. Studies and use of evidence-based treatment (EBT) should be linked to evidence-based assessment (EBA) to advance both EBT and EBA.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Measurement structure of the Turkish translation of the Child Behavior Checklist using confirmatory factor analytic approaches to validation of syndromal constructs.

The new correlated 8-factor measurement structure of the Child Behavior Checklist for ages 6-18 (CBCL/6-18; T. M. Achenbach & L. A. Rescorla, 2001) derived from an American sample was used as a benchmark to evaluate its generalizability to Turkish general population (N = 5,195) and clinical (N = 963) samples. Item-level confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to evaluate the adequacy of the correlated 8-factor model across 3 sample conditions (general population, clinical, and combined sample whose Total Problems scores were above the Turkish national median). The results supported the generalizability of the overall measurement structure of the CBCL to the Turkish population.

Child↗

PubMed2003

Are American children's problems still getting worse? A 23-year comparison.

Child Behavior Checklists were completed in home interviews by parents of 7-16-year-olds in 1976, 1989, and 1999. Competence scores decreased from 1976 to 1989, but increased in 1999. Problem scores increased from 1976 to 1989 and decreased in 1999 but remained higher than in 1976. Items, empirically based scales, and DSM-oriented scales showed similar patterns for demographically similar nonreferred samples assessed in 1976, 1989, and 1999 and for national samples that included referred children assessed in 1989 and 1999. For the 114 problem items that were common to the 1976, 1989, and 1999 assessments, the Q correlation was .98 between the mean scores on the 114 items in 1976 versus 1989 and was .94 between the mean scores on the 114 items in 1976 vs. 1999. This indicated very high stability in the rank ordering of item scores across intervals up to 23 years. For all children, the 1-year prevalence rate for mental health services use was 13.2% in 1989 versus 12.8% in 1999. For children with deviant Total Problems scores, the 1989 prevalence for service use was 30.5 versus 26.6% in 1999. Neither difference was statistically significant.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Genetic influences on childhood competencies: a twin study.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate genetic, environmental, and rater contrast influences on parental reports of Activities, Social, School, and Total Competence scales of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). METHOD: Parents of 492 twin pairs aged 8-12 years completed CBCLs. Genetic, shared and unique environmental, and rater bias effects were estimated for the Activities, Social, School, and Total Competence scales. Data on boys and girls were analyzed separately. RESULTS: Moderate genetic influences were found only for the School scale (60%-76%), while shared environment accounted for most of the variance in Activities, Social, and Total Competence scales. Gender differences are reported. Similar to a prior twin study of CBCL problem syndromes, there was no evidence of rater bias. CONCLUSIONS: Estimates of genetic influence on these child competence domains were high for School Competence, while social competence and activity competence evidenced higher levels of shared environmental influences. Organization and wording of CBCL items may avoid rater biases in reporting. These findings have implications for interventions to improve school, social, and activities competence.

Achievement↗

PubMed2003

Comparisons of problems reported by youths from seven countries.

OBJECTIVE: This study compared ratings for self-reported behavioral and emotional problems in adolescents from seven countries. METHOD: Youth Self-Report scores were analyzed for 7,137 adolescents ages 11-18 years from general population samples from Australia, China, Israel, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United States. RESULTS: Comparisons of problems scores yielded small to medium effect sizes for cross-cultural variations. Youths from China and Jamaica had the highest and youths from Israel and Turkey had the lowest mean total problems scores. With cross-cultural consistency, girls scored higher for internalizing and lower for externalizing than boys. Cross-cultural correlations were high among the mean item scores. CONCLUSIONS: Empirically based assessment provided a robust method for assessing and comparing adolescents' self-reported problems. Self-reports thus supplemented empirically based assessments of parent-reported problems and offered a cost-effective way of identifying problems for which adolescents from diverse cultural backgrounds may need help.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

DSM-oriented and empirically based approaches to constructing scales from the same item pools.

Separately for ages 11/2 to 5 and 6 to 18, used items for rating behavioral and emotional problems to construct (a). "top-down" DSM-oriented scales from experts' ratings of the items' consistency with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. [DSM-IV], American Psychiatric Association, 1994) categories, and (b). "bottom-up" empirically based syndromes from factor analyses of parent, caregiver, teacher, and self ratings (N = 14853). Both kinds of scales are scored from the same assessment instruments and are displayed on profiles normed on the same national samples. Psychometric properties were similar for both kinds of scales. Associations between counterpart scales were medium to strong. Quantified, normed DSM-oriented and empirically based scales scored from the same instruments can facilitate assessment of individuals, statistical analyses for research purposes, and integration of top-down and bottom-up approaches to deriving constructs for psychopathology.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Use of the language development survey (LDS) in a national probability sample of children 18 to 35 months old.

Data are reported from a national probability sample used to norm the Language Development Survey (LDS; L. Rescorla, 1989) and the Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 1 1/2-5 (CBCL/1 1/25; T. M. Achenbach & L. Rescorla, 2000). Participants were 278 children 18 to 35 months old who were highly diverse in socioeconomic status (SES), ethnic composition, and language background. Vocabulary scores increased markedly with age, were somewhat higher in girls, and were modestly correlated with SES. Children of non-Latino White ethnicity had significantly higher vocabulary scores and mean length of phrases than children of African American or "other" ethnicity (Hispanics/Asians/Native Americans/South Asians/mixed), even when SES was used as a covariate. Rate of language delay, using the cut-off of fewer than 50 words or no word combinations, was lower in the non-Latino White group (4%) than in the other two ethnicity groups (29% and 24%). Correlations between LDS scores and problem scores on the CBCL/1 1/2-5 were low, indicating that language delay and emotional/behavior problems were not closely associated in this general population sample of children 18 to 35 months old.

Child↗