Clinical categories of the child behaviour checklist - parent report in juvenile bipolar disorder

Abstract

Objectives: The Child Behaviour Checklist-Parent Report (CBCL-PR) is a widely used measure in child and adolescent mental health services. The CBCL-PR has been used in the assessment of Juvenile Bipolar Disorder (JBD), mostly in US client populations of preadolescent males. The present study aimed to investigate the overall scoring patterns in an Australian sample of children and adolescents with JBD. Methods: Parents of 36 female and 13 male children and adolescents with JBD aged between 8 and 17 years (M = 13.8, SD = 2.8) completed the CBCL during their assessment at a community JBD clinic in Newcastle, Australia. Mean T scores for the internalising, externalising and total problems subscales of the CBCL-PR were examined for group differences in age (< 12 years versus 12–17 years) and gender. Results: The average scores were in the clinical range (T score of 70 or above) for the internalising (mean T = 72.1, SD = 10.2), externalising (mean T = 70.0, SD = 13.1) and total (mean T = 72.8, SD = 10.4) subscales of the CBCL-PR. There were no significant effects of gender, age or the age and gender interaction, (p > .05) using ANOVA analyses. Conclusions: The CBCL-PR may be an important assessment tool for a wide range of children and adolescents with JBD, supplementing the well-documented findings with preadolescent, mostly male children. This Australian sample tended to score in the clinical range (98th percentile or above) on all three major subscales (internalising, externalising and total) of the CBCL-PR.