A Methodological Study on Screening Childhood Psychopathology in the Community (Ⅰ) - A study on the degree of agreement to detect high-risk children between parents and teachers using the K-Child Behavior Checklist(CBCL)

Abstract

Objective :Combining information given by parents and teachers on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) provide an adequately sensitive and specific screening instrument for childhood psychopathology. However, there are methodological difficulties in Korea involving the gathering of information from teachers. The purpose of this study was to develop an effective methodological tool that could be used for screening childhood psychopathology in the community. Thus, the authors conducted parental education on one group of parents before they commenced with the CBCL in order to investigate the effect of parental education on parent-teacher agreement. Method :1122 first-grade elementary school children residing in O’san city (M=539, F=583) participated in this study. CBCL information from both parents and teachers were used to provide assessments of children’s behaviors and emotional states. Parents were divided into two groups: the educated group (n=383) consisting of those who received parental education prior to the CBCL, and the non-educated group (n=739) consisting of those without parental education. The present study investigated differences in the CBCL mean values of the two parental groups and compared the degree of agreement between teacher-educated parents and teacher-non educated parents. Results :1) There were no significant effects of gender, age and schools on CBCL mean values for both parental groups. 2) CBCL mean value was significantly higher in the educated parental group when compared to the non-educated parental group (p<.001). 3) In evaluating the normal group and the high-risk group of children, parent-teacher agreement in the educated group was significantly higher than that of the non-educated group (kappa=0.24). Conclusions :This study shows that parental education may serve as an useful method for increasing the accuracy of information given by parents. In screening childhood psychopathology in the community using CBCL, the authors suggest that parents should primarily evaluate children’s behaviors and emotional states, while teachers re-evaluate only the children who are classified in the high-risk group during the first-stage evaluation.