Gray R, Indurkhya A, McCormick MC; AcademyHealth. Meeting (2003 : Nashville, Tenn.).
Abstr AcademyHealth Meet. 2003; 20: abstract no. 270.
Harvard School of Public Health, Maternal and Child Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115-6096 Tel. (617) 432-3695 Fax (617) 432-3755
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The Child Health Questionnaire is a multidimensional measure of child physical and psychosocial well-being. There has been little empirical work examining some of these dimensions with more standard and established but often much longer measures of the same domains. The objective of this study was to determine the correlation between scores on the behavior and mental health scales of the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) with externalizing, internalizing and total problem scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), the most widely used instrument in the field. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional: this study involved the comparison of the scores on two different measurement instruments of one group of children at a single point in time. The Pearson correlation coefficients between both of the total scores on the 16-item behavior (BE) and mental health(MH) scales and the total problems, externalizing and internalizing scores on the CBCL was computed. POPULATION STUDIED: 867 low birth weight preterm children born October 1984 to August 1985 and enrolled in the Infant Health and development program were assessed at age eight using the Child behavior Checklist and a beta version of the 98 item parent-completed CHQ. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The Pearson correlation coefficients between the BE Scores and the CBCL(n=867) were -0.69 [CI -0.72 to -0.65] (total problems) -0.72[CI -0.75 to -0.69 ] (externalizing) and -0.55[CI -0.60 to -0.50 ] (internalizing). The coefficients between the MH Scores and the CBCL (n=867) were -0.57[CI -0.61 to -0.52] (total problems) -0.50[CI -0.55 to -0.45] (externalizing) and -0.59[CI -0.63 to -0.55 ] (internalizing). CONCLUSIONS: The 16 item BE scale is valid as a measure of behavior problems when compared with the CBCL in this group of children. It is mpre highy correlated with externalizing than internalizing problems. The MH scale is not correlated as highly but appears to be a better measure of internalizing problems. Overall these results support the validity of the BE and MH scales of the CHQ as measures of behavioral health outcomes in children. IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY, DELIVERY OR PRACTICE: The CHQ is becoming increasingly popular as a measure of health-related quality of life in children. It has been internationally validated as an outcome measure for clinical and health services research in a number of populations. This study shows that its behavior and mental health scales correlate well with the externalizing and internalizing dimensions of behavior problems as measured on the CBCL. Researchers using the CHQ can therefore be more confident in the validity of its measurement of psychosocial functioning.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Behavior
- Child
- Child Behavior
- Child Behavior Disorders
- Child Welfare
- Health
- Health Behavior
- Health Status
- Humans
- Infant
- Mental Health
- Parents
- Personality Tests
- Physical Examination
- Questionnaires
- methods
- hsrmtgs
Other ID:
UI: 102275251
From Meeting Abstracts