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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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2013

Maggi Price
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, Hilo
Charmaine Higa-McMillan*
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, Hilo
Chad Ebesutani
Affiliation:
Duksung University, Seoul
Kelsie Okamura
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, Manoa
Brad J. Nakamura
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, Manoa
Bruce F. Chorpita
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
John Weisz
Affiliation:
Harvard University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Charmaine Higa-McMillan, 200 West Kawili Street, Hilo, HI 96720; E-mail: higac@hawaii.edu.

Abstract

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.

Type
Regular Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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