Internal consistency and criterion validity and reliability of the Mexican Version of the Child Behavior Checklist 1.5-5 (CBCL/1.5-5)

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the validity and internal consistency of the Mexican version of the CBCL/1.5-5 that assesses the most common psychopathology in pre-school children in clinical and epidemiological settings.

Patients and Method: A total of 438 parents from two groups, clinical-psychiatric (N= 62) and community (N= 376) completed the CBCL/1.5-5/Mexican version.

Results: The internal consistency was high for total problems α=0.95, and internalized α=0.89 and externalized α=0.91 subscales. The test re-test (one week) using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was ≥ 0.95 for the internalized, externalized, and total problems subscales. The ROC curve for the criterion status of clinically-referred vs. non-referred using the total problems scale ≥ 24 resulted in an AUC (area under curve) of 0.77, a specificity 0.73, and a sensitivity of 0.70.

Conclusions: The CBCL/1.5-5/Mexican version is a reliable and valid tool.