Behavioural/emotional problems in Brazilian children: findings from parents' reports on the Child Behavior Checklist

Background. To compare Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) findings for a large Brazilian general population sample with those for US children considering: (a) mean problem item ratings; (b) fit of the US-derived CBCL 8-syndrome model; (c) scale internal consistency measured by Cronbach's alphas; (d) effects of society, age, gender on CBCL problem scores; and (e) ability to discriminate referred from non-referred children. Methods. Parents of 1228 non-referred 6-to-11-year-olds from three different regions of Brazil and 247 referred 6-to-11-year-olds from one clinic rated their children's behavioural and emotional problems using the CBCL/6-18. Results. Results for mean item ratings and scale internal consistencies were very similar to those found in the US and in Uruguay. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that Brazilian data showed the best fit to the US 8-syndrome model of all countries studied to date. Gender patterns were comparable to those reported in other societies, but mean problem scores for non-referred Brazilian children were higher than those for US children. Therefore, the CBCL discriminated less well between non-referred and referred children in Brazil than in the US. Conclusions. Overall, our findings replicated those reported in international comparisons of CBCL scores for 31 societies, thereby providing support for the multicultural robustness of the CBCL in Brazil.