Validity of the Amsterdam Child Behavior Checklist: a short rating scale for children

The Amsterdam Child Behavior Checklist is a short behavior checklist meant to distinguish between attention problems and several other common behavioral and emotional problems of children in primary education. The list has four scales, Attention Behavior, Restlessness, Aggressive Behavior, and Fear/Uncertainty. We examined the relationships among the scores on the scales and similar scales of the Teacher Report Form, the teachers' version of the Child Behavior Checklist. Teachers from 94 schools rated 454 children on both lists. Analysis showed that the associations between the scores of the scales of the Amsterdam Child Behavior Checklist and of similar scales of the Teacher Report Form ranged from moderate to strong. These data support the validity of the scales of the Amsterdam Child Behavior Checklist.