The Obsessive-Compulsive Symptom (OCS) scale of the Child Behavior Checklist: a comparison between Swedish children...

Area of Science:

• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Behavioral Psychology
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) is a widely used parent-report measure for assessing child psychopathology.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a debilitating condition in children and adolescents, requiring accurate and efficient screening tools.
• Previous validation studies have explored the utility of CBCL items in identifying specific child psychiatric conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the discriminative validity of specific parent-reported items from the CBCL's Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (OCS) in identifying childhood OCD.
• To compare the effectiveness of these CBCL items against established diagnostic criteria and previous validation findings.
• To determine the optimal CBCL items for screening pediatric OCD in clinical settings.

Main Methods:

• A comparative study design involving three groups: children diagnosed with OCD (OCD group), children from general psychiatric clinics (CPO group), and a normative school sample (SS group).
• Participants were matched for age and gender. Diagnostic criteria for OCD were based on the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS).
• Logistic regression and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analyses were employed to evaluate the predictive power of selected CBCL items.

Main Results:

• Ten CBCL items, primarily related to internalizing symptoms and thought problems, initially distinguished the OCD group from the CPO group.
• Logistic regression identified four CBCL items ("Obsessions," "Fearful and Anxious," "Compulsions," and "Worries") as significant predictors of OCD.
• ROC analysis revealed that the CBCL items "Obsessions" and "Compulsions" were the strongest predictors, performing well as screens for OCS symptoms without significant improvement from additional items.

Conclusions:

• The CBCL items "Obsessions" and "Compulsions" demonstrate strong predictive value for screening pediatric OCD in child psychiatric settings.
• Parental responses to these two specific CBCL items can serve as an effective and efficient initial screen for OCD in children and adolescents.
• These findings support the use of targeted CBCL items for early identification of OCD in routine clinical practice, potentially improving diagnostic efficiency.