Table of Contents | Previous | Next |
INTERNALIZING/EXTERNALIZING BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS
NATIONAL SURVEY OF CHILD AND ADOLESCENT WELL-BEING
Measure: Teacher Report Form on student behavior
Background
The Teacher Report Form (TRF) is used in the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) to measure child behavior. The TRF is nearly identical to the Youth Behavior Checklist (Achenbach 1991a) and includes the same subscales of problem syndromes. However, the questions are re-worded for teachers, as opposed to caregivers, as respondents,.
The NSCAW was funded and administered by the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The study has been conducted through collaboration between staff at the Research Triangle Institute, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Caliber Associates, and the University of California at Berkeley.
Population Assessed
The Teacher Survey Instrument is administered to teachers of children in kindergarten through grade 12 (children ages 5 to 18) who were not home schooled. Overall, the two NSCAW sample components are made up of 6,227 children; 5,501 of those children had contact with the child welfare system within a 15-month period beginning in October 1999. At the time of sampling, the children ranged in age from birth to 14 years old; infants, children who have been abused sexually, and children who are receiving services were oversampled. The results of the survey can be generalized to the population that comes in contact with the child welfare system in the United States. Using the TRF, data were collected for 1,269 children at Wave 1 and 1,633 children at Wave 3.
The child protective services and long-term foster care sample components were fairly evenly distributed across the various child age categories from birth to age 14. At the time of the Wave 1 interview, just under 30 percent of the children fell under age 2. Another 21.6 percent fell between the ages of 2 and 5. Around 27 percent of the sample of children fell between the ages of 6 and 10. And 22 percent of the child sample fell between the ages of 11 and 14 at the time of the initial interview.
The racial and ethnic make-up of the combined child sample was diverse. American Indians made up 6.2 percent of the sample; Asian, Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islanders made up 2.4 percent of the sample; 35.7 percent of the sample was African American or Black; 49.6 percent of the sample was White. Across these racial groups, 17.3 percent were classified as being of Hispanic ethnic background. (See survey description for more information on the population.)
Periodicity
Data for the TRF were collected at Wave 1 between November 15, 1999, and April 30, 2001, and Wave 3, between April 1, 2001, and September 30, 2002. The TRF is also included in Wave 4 data collection, which should be complete by March 31, 2004.
Subscales/Components
The TRF is nearly identical to the Youth Report Form and includes the same subscales of problem syndromes. The Total Problems Scale is made up of eight subscales (syndromes), including Withdrawn, Somatic Complaints, Anxious/Depressed, Social Problems, Thought Problems, Attention Problems, Delinquent Problems, Aggressive Behavior, and Other Problems. Internalizing problems contain somatic complaints, anxiousness/depression, and withdrawn syndromes. Externalizing problems contain aggressive behavior and delinquent syndromes.
Procedures for Administration
Teachers completed TRFs for children ages 5 to 18 years. The TRF is a pencil and paper questionnaire that was mailed to K–12 teachers (excluding home-school instructors). Because it is a self-administered questionnaire, administration time is not available.
Psychometrics/Data Quality
The 15-day test-retest reliability was found to be high, using a sample of 44 children: .95 for Total Problems, .91 for Internalizing behaviors, and .92 for Externalizing behaviors.
Construct validity was also found to be good, with correlations ranging from .80 to .83 for a set of TRF subscales and similar Conners Revised Teacher Rating Scales.
Using a representative standardization sample of 1,391 children ages 5 to 18, the TRF was found to be of high quality. Test-retest reliability, for the total scale and various subscales, ranged from .87 (for internalizing) to .97 (for externalizing).
Languages Available
The TRF was provided only in English.
Items Included
The 112 items are not provided because of copyright issues.
Note: The TRF is nearly identical to the CBCL (which is copyrighted) and includes the same subscales of problem syndromes.
References and Source Documents
Some of the references listed below were cited in source documents if they were not readily available.
Achenbach, T.M. (1991a). Manual for the child behavior checklist 2–3 and 1991 profile. Burlington: Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont.
Achenbach, T. (1991b). Manual for the child behavior checklist 4–18 and 1991 profile. Burlington: Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont.
Achenbach, T.M. (1991c). Manual for the youth self-report and 1991 profile. Burlington: Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont.
Asher, S., & Wheeler, V. (1985). Children’s loneliness: A comparison of rejected and neglected peer status. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53(4), 500–505.
Briere, J. (1996). Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children: Professional Manual. Florida: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.
Dowd, K., Kinsey, S., Wheeless, S., Thissen, R., Richardson, J., Suresh, R., Mierzwa, F., Biemer, P., Johnson, I., and Lytle, T. (2003, September). National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being: Combined Waves 1–3 data file user’s manual. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect.
Dowd, K., Kinsey, S., Wheeless, S., Thissen, R., Richardson, J., Mierzwa, F., & Biemer, P. (2002, May). National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being: Wave 1 Data File User’s Manual. National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect: Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
Gresham, F.M., & Elliott, S.N. (1990). Social Skills Rating System. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.
Kovacs, M. (1992). Children’s Depression Inventory. North Tonawanda, NY: Multi-health Systems, Inc.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children, Youth and Families (2001, June). National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being: Local Child Welfare Agency Survey: Report. Washington, D.C. (Located on the web at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/abuse_neglect/nscaw/index.html).
| Table of Contents | Previous | Next |