Epidemiological Comparisons of American and Dutch Children: I. Behavioral/Emotional Problems and Competencies Reported by Parents for Ages 4 to 16

The purpose was to test the cross-national applicability of a standardized procedure for assessing children's behavioral/emotional problems and competencies. Child Behavior Checklists were completed by parents of 1,300 American and 2,033 Dutch nonreferred children randomly selected from the general population. Analyses controlling for sex, age, and socioeconomic status showed striking similarities in the behavioral/emotional problems reported in the two countries. On a total problem scale ranging from 0 to 240, the overall mean was 19.97 for the American and 20.45 for the Dutch sample, a nonsignificant difference of less than half a point. Controlling for chance findings, there were significant but small nationality differences on 52 out of 120 problem items, half showing higher scores for American and half for Dutch children. The proportion of internalizing versus externalizing problems did not differ by nationality. Social competence scores showed significant nationality differences, with American parents tending to score their children higher on most items. Sex, age, and SES differences and comparisons with Child Behavior Checklist data from French Canadian and Chilean samples are presented. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of standardized cross-national research on child psychopathology.