Development and validation of a short form of the German Developmental Behaviour Checklist for Teachers (DBC-T)

Children and adolescents with an intellectual disability (ID) show increased rates of emotional and behavioural problems, presenting significant challenges for the afflicted individuals, their families, and their teachers. The teacher version of the Developmental Behaviour Checklist (DBC-T) is a reliable and valid questionnaire comprising 94 items that assess emotional and behavioural problems in children and adolescents with ID.

The present study aimed to develop and validate a short form of the German DBC-T that retains the structure and the good psychometric properties of the full version, thereby allowing for the interpretation of the subscale scores.

Data were obtained from a longitudinal study involving 397 teacher staff members who reported on 1177 children and adolescents with ID at two time points during one school year (T1, T2). The full version of the DBC-T was shortened in a two-stage process based on data from T1. The reliability of the subscales of the short form and various aspects of construct validity were evaluated using data from T1 and T2.

A short form of 35 items was developed. The factor structure was confirmed at both T1 and T2. The five subscales demonstrated good internal consistency. The findings indicated both discriminant and convergent validity in relation to adaptive behaviour, as well as known-group validity concerning gender and age.

The proposed short form complements the full version of the DBC-T and offers a time-efficient means of assessing multiple students simultaneously, as often required in school and research contexts. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS?: This study develops and validates a short form of the German Developmental Behaviour Checklist (DBC-T) that assess emotional and behavioural problems in children and adolescents with intellectual disability. The proposed short form retains the subscale format of the DBC-T, allowing for interpretation of the subscale scores. The short form demonstrated good psychometric properties. As a reliable, valid and time-efficient instrument, the short version may supplement the full version.