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INTERNALIZING/EXTERNALIZING BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS
EARLY HEAD START EVALUATION AND TRACKING PRE-KINDERGARTEN FOLLOW-UP
Measure: Child Behavior Checklist, Aggressive Behavior Subscale
Background
The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) is a widely used measure of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, as well as smaller subscales that tap specific types of behavior (e.g., aggression, somatization). This two-phase national evaluation was launched to examine the impacts of the Early Head Start (EHS) program and used the Aggressive Behavior subscale of the CBCL to measure child behavior problems in their sample.
The current document includes measures information based on the first phase of the study (birth to three) because information regarding measures for the Tracking Pre-Kindergarten (TPK) phase of the study is not available.
These EHS evaluations are funded by the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contractor for the evaluation is Mathematica Policy Research, Inc and the subcontractor is the Center for Children and Families at Columbia University, Teachers College. The TPK follow-up phase (2001-2004) is also funded by the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Mathematica Policy Research, Inc is the contractor. In 1997, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) provided funds (through ACYF) to add a major study of the fathers of EHS children.
Population Assessed
Of 68 EHS programs that received funding to run programs in 1995 and that agreed to participate in the impact study, 15 study centers were selected based on whether they could recruit twice as many families as they could serve, had a relationship with a research institution, and collectively represented various geographic locations and contexts that represent the wide variety of EHS setting in the United States. Two additional programs that were funded in 1996 were added later, for a total of 17 programs. The 17 EHS and follow-up TPK programs were located in all regions of the country (i.e., Russellville, Arkansas; Venice, California; Denver, Colorado [two programs]; Marshalltown, Iowa; Kansas City, Kansas; Jackson, Michigan; New York City, New York; Kansas City, Missouri; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Sumter, South Carolina; McKenzie, Tennessee; Logan, Utah; Alexandria, Virginia; Kent, Washington; Sunnyside, Washington; and Brattleboro, Vermont). Programs offered center-based, home-based, and mixed-approach services. Because these programs were not randomly selected, results from EHS research should not be considered representative of all EHS programs.
Once the 17 EHS programs were selected for the evaluation, they went through their usual application process for families (e.g., including children with disabilities) and reported all applicants to the study team, where individual children were then randomly assigned to either experimental (i.e., accepted into EHS) or control (i.e., no EHS) groups. The families and children who participated in the evaluation were racially and ethnically diverse. Many of the children had parents who came from minority racial/ethnic groups, were single heads of households, did not speak English as their primary language, had relatively low educational attainment, and were receiving public assistance of some kind (e.g., Medicaid, WIC, food stamps, AFDC or TANF, and SSI benefits). There did not appear to be any significant differences between the experimental and control groups, other than group assignment (Love et al., 2002a).
Periodicity
Child behavior problems were assessed using items from the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000b) that address aggressive behavior. The items from the CBCL Aggressive Behavior subscale were included in the Parent Interview for all sites when children were 24 and 36 months old. The aggressive behavior scale was also included in the father interviews for the 12 father study sites carrying out the study of fathers when children were 24 and 36 months old (Love et al., 2002b). The same CBCL items were administered in the TPK interview when the children were, on average, 63 months old.
Subscales/Components
The Aggressive Behavior scale is a subscale of the CBCL, when the CBCL is given in its entirety. In the present context, because it is the only set of items from the CBCL used, it is referred to as a scale rather than as a subscale of the CBCL.
Procedures for Administration
At 24 and 36 months, in-person maternal interviews were conducted, when possible. Phone interviews were used in the rare instances in which an in-person interview could not be done. Fathers were interviewed in similar fashion in the 12 father study sites. The time needed to administer these items is not noted. However, given the time the author of the CBCL states that it takes to administer the entire measure, these items are estimated to take 2 to 5 minutes.
Psychometrics/Data Quality
All measures in the EHS evaluation were selected based on guiding principles that included psychometric strength. Measures were to (1) show relevance to the key goals and hypotheses of the study, (2) be appropriate to child age and developmental level, (3) be appropriate for EHS populations (i.e., low income, minority, language other than English), (4) show alpha coefficients of .70 or higher, (5) when possible, have been used in other large national studies, and (6) be low of cost and burden (Love et al., 2002b).
The CBCL manual reports strong evidence of convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of the measure. This measure is useful in discriminating children with clinical levels of internalizing and externalizing problems from normative samples (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000b). This includes clinical and normative levels of aggressive behavior, the aspect of behavior problems focused upon in the present study. The CBCL is also a widely used measure of behavior problems and has been used in other large national studies looking at children of comparable age (e.g., NICHD Study of Early Child Care) and demographic groups (e.g., FACES).
The CBCL was included in the parent interview, which had a response rate of 70.3 percent at 36 months.
Languages Available
Interviews, including the items for the Aggressive Behavior Scale, were available in both English and Spanish.
Items Included
Item level information is not available for the EHS studies, but examples of CBCL aggressive behavior items include “Child has temper tantrums,” “Child hits others,” and “Child is easily frustrated.” Parents rate their child as manifesting these behaviors within the past two months “often,” “sometimes,” or “never” (Love et al., 2002b).
References and Source Documents
Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2000). Manual for the ASEBA preschool forms & profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families.
Love, J. M., Kisker, E. E., Ross, C. M., Schochet, P. Z., Brooks-Gunn, J., Paulsell, D., Boller, K., Constantine, J., Vogel, C., Fuligini, A. S., & Brady-Smith, C. (2002a). Making a difference in the lives of infants and toddlers and their families: Volume I: The impacts of Early Head Start. Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families; Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation; Child Outcomes Research and Evaluation; Administration on Children, Youth, and Families; Head Start Bureau.
Love, J. M., Kisker, E. E., Ross, C. M., Schochet, P. Z., Brooks-Gunn, J., Paulsell, D., Boller, K., Constantine, J., Vogel, C., Fuligini, A. S., & Brady-Smith, C. (2002b). Making a difference in the lives of infants and toddlers and their families: Volume II: Final Technical Report Appendixes. Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families; Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation; Child Outcomes Research and Evaluation; Administration on Children, Youth, and Families; Head Start Bureau.
For other papers, please refer to the Early Head Start Collection of Consortium-Written Research Articles and Reports located at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/ehs/ehs_resrch/index.html
http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/3rdLevel/ehstoc.htm
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/ehs/ehs_resrch/index.html
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