Problem Behaviour Check-List
(PBCL)
V. Veeraraghavan and A. Dogra
MANUAL
FOR
PROBLEM BEHAVIOUR CHECKLIST
INTRODUCTION
Emotional and behavloural disorders are common in
childhood and
adolescence. The special features of children's psychiatric problems are that the
disturbance in the child may result from problems in other
family, especially the parents. Another aspect is whether the members of the
considered abnormal, is related to the child's stage of behaviour, which is
many types of disorders, which have many development. There are
cornmon
depends a great deal on the family, especialy un the symptoms. Since the child
fanily environment which facilitates mother for a stable, secure
emotional bond, aceptance and consistent
discipline, a lack in any of these aspects may
and conduct disorders. VWhile predispose the child to emotional
assessment the problems in childhood is
basically carried out by interviewing the
of
helpful to make a clear-cut diagnosis as parents, often one finds a checklist
(1980), Burgess (1990) and Schmidt etpointed
out by Holland and
Kendall
al. (1985). The
assessment strategy Is the self-report
questionnaire, which
mostcommon
are
represent dysfunction in different areas of designed to
behaviour, Higher scores on such
questionnaires indicate that the incdividual endorses
type of cognition and more items reflecting the
endorsement correlate withbehaviourthe scale measured. Higher levels of
regard is filled with Constructmeasuras psychopathology. The literature in this
of
specitic scales ard their relation to
psychopathology (Linscott &DiGiuseppe, 1988). Several certain types of
checklists In which parents are askod to rate tieir behaviour problem
developed and extensively studied, For child's behaviours have been
example, one such checklist is "Child
4 Manual for PBCL
Denaviour Checklist" CBCL by Achenbach &Edelbrock (1983). In behaviour
problem checklist, a child is characterised in terms of his or her position along
ach possible behavioural cimension as compared to children in the nôrmal
population.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHECKLIST
Ihe Checklist was devisad to identity the emotional and conduct problems
of children. The following procedure was adopted for
developing this scale.
A total of 100 items was
prepared inthe form of symptoms which had tobe
rated on a three point scale, with 1,2 &3 indicative of 'no',
'average' & 'high'
problem behaviour. As per ICD-10, specific diagnostic
criteria were included
separateBy for emotional, conduct and mixed disorders of
conduct and emotions,
These 100items were thern given to 25
the internal consistency method, only
psychologists and 25 psychiatrists. Using
those items were chosen on which the
rating was the same amongst all the 50
experts. Using this principle, 58 items
were selected from atotal of 100 iterms.
Thus, there are 58 items in the scale to
be responded by the
'most often', 'occasionally' &'never. Parent's with
These were then administered to a
of 300 married couples aroup
from the normal population, (N = 600)
from the and 100 couples
psychiatric (pathological) population (N = 200) and the
validity were worked out. reliability and
Administration
These items were to ba
tick-marked
symptoms occurred 'most often',
by the parents as to
whether the
occurred 'most often', it was 'occasionally' or 'never'. Where the response
indicative of high
'occasionally' and 'never' were indicative of problem behaviour, and
behaviour', respectively. 'average' and 'no problem
Manual for PBCL |5
Scoring 3,'average' and 'no
Items indicative of high priblem behaviour' were given
problem behaviour' were assigned a score of 2 and 1 respectively. Total scores
score, the
obtained ranged between 58-174, thus indicating that the higher the
lower the
higher the problem behaviour of the child, and the lower the score, the
problem behaviour of the child.
Interpretation
All the 58 items selected were indicative of behaviour problem in children.
These were to be tick-marked by the respondents on a 1-3point scale, as to
what extent the behaviour occurred 'most often', 'occasionally' and 'never. Thus
the scores range between 58 and 174. These scores were divided into three
categories based on the scores obtained by the normal population (N = 600)
and the pathological population (N=200). The categories are as follows:
Low problem behaviour 58-96
Moderate problem behaviour 97-135
High probiem behaviour 136-174
In a scale running from 58-174, the rating low, moderate and high wil fall on
the continuum as given in the figure below:
58 97 136 174
Low AModerateAHigh
The mean and standard deviation for behaviour problem scores for the
normal population of N = 600 and parents vith children manifesting problem
behaviour N 200 were worked out. The table below presents the details.
6
Manual tor PBCL
TABLE 1
Standard devlation N
Groups Mean
Normal population 8.42 600
57.38
200
Psychiatric population 158.78 6.88
RELIABILITY
with an index oT
The test-retest reliability for this scale was X =.85.,
reliability was 0.85.
(Ö) The split-half reliability correlating odd even items applying Spearman
X =72, N=
Brown formula for doubling the test lerngth was found to be
600,with an index of reliability fu.81.
These are presented in Table 2
TABLE 2
Split-half and test-retest reliability values
N
Index of reliability
600 .81
Split-halt
600 .85
Test-retest
VALIDITY
face validity of the questionnaire appeared to be fairly high as tne items
) The
interviews with 300 couples regarding the
were prepared following inteGnsive
as perceived by them.
extent of problem behaviour in their children
The content validity was adequately assured as only those items were
(0)
there was complete agreement
selected for the initial questionnaire for which
amongst theexperts.
Manual for PB CL | 7
showedla high discriminating value following item
Finally, items which
the final test. The diagnostic meaningfulness of tthe
analysis were selected for
also taken into consideration
items at the time of final selection was
REFERENCES
Child Behaviour
Achenbach, T.M. and Edelbrock, C. S. (1983). Manual for
Checklist and Revised Behaviour Profile Department of Psychiatry,
University of Vermont, Burlington.
assessment
Burgess, P.M. (1990). Towards resolution of conceptual issues in the
of beliefs systems in rational emotive therapy. Journai of Cognitive
Psychotherapy : An International Quarterly. 4, 171-84.
Holland, S.D. and Kendall, P.C. (1980). Cogniive self statement in depression :
Development of an automatic thoughts questionnaire. Cogniive Therapy
and Research, 4, 383-95.
Linscot, J. and DiGiuseppe, R. (198). Cognitive Assessment in A.S. Bellack
and M. Mersen (Eds.), Behavioural Assessment, APractical Handbook.
Allyn &Bacon, London.
Schmidt, N.B. Joiner, T.E.; Young. J.and Teich, M.J. (1995). The schema
questionnaire, Investigation of psychometric properties and the hierarchical
structure of ameasure of maladaptive schema. Cognitive Therapy and
Research, 19, 295-321.
2000. Alllghts reserved, No porllon of this scalo malorlale thould be taproduced In any torm without the
Writen permlsalon of tho author and tsy publlahors, Polslom Behavlour Chock Llst (PBCQ
