OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to compare syndromes of
parent-reported problems for children in 12 cultures. METHOD: Child
Behavior Checklists were analyzed for 13,697 children and adolescents,
ages 6 through 17 years, from general population samples in Australia,
Belgium, China, Germany, Greece, Israel, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Puerto
Rico, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. RESULTS: Comparisons of
nine cultures for subjects ages 6 through 17 gave medium effect sizes for
cross-cultural variations in withdrawn and social problems and small
effect sizes for somatic complaints, anxious/depressed, thought problems,
attention problems, delinquent behavior, and aggressive behavior. Scores
of Puerto Rican subjects were the highest, whereas Swedish subjects had
the lowest scores on almost all syndromes. With great cross-cultural
consistency, girls obtained higher scores than boys on somatic complaints
and anxious/depressed but lower scores on attention problems, delinquent
behavior, and aggressive behavior. Although remarkably consistent across
cultures, the developmental trends differed according to syndrome.
Comparison of the 12 cultures across ages 6 through 11 supported these
results. CONCLUSIONS: Empirically based assessment in terms of Child
Behavior Checklist syndromes permits comparisons of problems reported for
children from diverse cultures