Assessing emotional and behavioural problems with the child behaviour checklist: exploring the relevance of adjusting the norms for the Flemisch community

The Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) is one of the most frequently used dimensional instruments for screening behavioural and emotional problems in children. In this study the psychometric properties of the CBCL 2001-version and the usefulness of existing US norms within a Flemish community sample were explored. Mothers of young children (N = 170) and school-aged children and adolescents (N = 718) completed the CBCL and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Reliability of both the CBCL/1½-5 and CBCL/6-18 was excellent. There were substantial correlations between the SDQ and CBCL scales, indicating a good concurrent validity. Significant differences were found when comparing the mean CBCL raw scores of the different subsamples (for different ages and gender groups) with the US norms. Generally spoken, the mean CBCL raw scores as well as the clinical and borderline clinical cutpoints for Flemish children were mostly lower, specifically for the Total Problems score and the Externalising scales

The Association of Cognitive Ability with Right-wing Ideological Attitudes and Prejudice: A Meta-analytic Review

The cognitive functioning of individuals with stronger endorsement of right-wing and prejudiced attitudes has elicited much scholarly interest. Whereas many studies investigated cognitive styles, less attention has been directed towards cognitive ability. Studies investigating the latter topic generally reveal lower cognitive ability to be associated with stronger endorsement of right-wing ideological attitudes and greater prejudice. However, this relationship has remained widely unrecognized in literature. The present meta-analyses revealed an average effect size of r =-.20 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) [-0.23, -0.17]; based on 67 studies, N=84 017] for the relationship between cognitive ability and right-wing ideological attitudes and an average effect size of r=-.19 (95% CI [-0.23, -0.16]; based on 23 studies, N=27 011) for the relationship between cognitive ability and prejudice. Effect sizes did not vary significantly across different cognitive abilities and sample characteristics. The effect strongly depended on the measure used for ideological attitudes and prejudice, with the strongest effect sizes for authoritarianism and ethnocentrism. We conclude that cognitive ability is an important factor in the genesis of ideological attitudes and prejudice and thus should become more central in theorizing and model building