Saturday, 15 January 2005 - 2:00 PM

This presentation is part of: Cultural Issues in Mental Health

Cultural Competence in the Mental Health Assessment of Adopted Children: A Cross-Ethnic Validity Study of the CBCL

With the national focus of improving mental health care disparities between ethnic majority and ethnic minority populations, cultural competence in the design and structure of assessment measures is a critical first step. This study examined the cross-ethnic measurement equivalence of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) using a sample of adopted youth that included 490 African American (AA) and 790 Caucasian American (CA) children. These data were part of longitudinal survey of adopted families in one state. Specifically, baseline data on these children were used to conduct the analyses presented here. Caregivers completed several assessment instruments and a family interview questionnaire. Reliability and multiple sources of postdictive criterion-related validity were analyzed. Furthermore, the factorial equivalence of the CBCL was analyzed using a structural equation modeling procedure. Alpha reliabilities for the full scale and for the broadband sub-scales (i.e., externalizing and internalizing) were high for both groups. There were substantially more similarities than there were differences between the two groups in terms of the criterion validity evidence. The factorial equivalence evidence was mixed, and suggested that while the factor structure of the CBCL was non-equivalent across the two groups, it worked similar and equally well for both groups. Practical implications of these results for practice are discussed. Finally, directions for future applied research in this area are forwarded.

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