MANUAL.

FOR
PROBLEM BEHAVIOUR CHECKLIST

INTRODUCTION
Emotional and behavioural disorders are common in childhood and
adolescence. The special features of chilcdren's psychiatric problems are that the
the
disturbance in the child may result from problems in other members of
the behaviour, which is
tamily, especially the parents. Another aspect is whether
are
Considered abnormal, is relatedto the child's stage of development. There
symptoms. Since the child
many types of disorders, which have many conmon
for a stable, secure
depends a great deal on the family, especially on the mother
consistent
family environment whichfacilitates emotional bond, acceptance and
emotional
discipline, alack in any of these aspects may predispose the childto
in childhood is
and conduct disorders. While assessment of the problemns
checklist
basically carried out by interviewing the parents, often one finds a
helpful to make aclear-cut diagnosis as pointed out by Holland and Kendall
(1980), Burgess (1990) and Schmicdt et al. (1985). The most common
assessment strategy is the self-report cquestionnaire, which are designed to
represent dysfunction in different areas of behaviour. Higher scores on such
questionnaires indicate that the individual encdorses more items reflecting the
type of cognitionand behaviour the scale measurecd. Higher levels of
endorsement correlate with measures of psycYiopathology. The literature in this
regard is filled with Construct specific scales ard their relation to certain types of
Dsvchopathology (Linscott & DiGiuseppe, 1938). Several behaviour problem
ahecklists in which parents are asked to rate their child's behaviours have been
doveloned and extensively studiecd. For example, one such checklist is "Child
4 | Manual for PBCL 24 25

Behaviour Checklist"CBCL. by Achenbach &Edelbrock (1983). In behaviour

poolem checklist, a child is characterised in terms of his or her position along
ei POSsible behavioural cimension as compared to children in the normal
population.
DEVELOPMENT OFTHE CHECKLIST
conduct problems
Ihe Checklist was devised to identitythe emotional and
of children. The following procedure was adopted for
developing this Scale.
prepared in the form of symptoms which had to be
A TOtal Of 100 items was
point scale, with 1, 2&3 indicative of 'no', 'average' &'hign
rated on a three
included
behaviour. As per ICD-10, specific diagnostic criteria were
problem
concuct and mixed disorders of conduct and emotions.
separately for emotional,
were then given to 25 psychologists and 25 psychiatrists. Using
These 100 items
the
consistency method, only those items were chosen on which
the internal
amongst allthe 50 experts. Usingthis principle, 58 items
rating was the same
100 items.
were selected from a total of
in the scale to be responded by the Parent's with
Thus, there are 58 items
group
often', 'occasionally' & never'. These were then administered to a
'most
cOuples from the normal population, (N = 600) and 100 couples
of 300 married
psychiatric (pathoiogical) population (N = 200) and the reliability and
from the
validity were worked out.

Administration
as to whether the
These items were to be tick-marked by the parents
Where the response
symptoms occurred 'most often', "occasionally' or 'never.
and
occurred 'most often', it was indicative of high problem benaviour,
'occasionally' and 'never' were indicative of'average' and 'no problem
behaviour', respectively.
 Manual for PB CL|5

Scoring
Items indicative of 'high problem behaviour' were given 3, 'average' and no
problem behaviour' were assianed a score of 2 and 1 respectively. Total scores
the score, the
Obtained ranged between 58-174, thus indicating that the higher
problem behaviour of the child, and the lower the score, the lower the
nigher the
problem behaviour of the child.

Interpretation children.
selected were indicative of behaviour problem in
Allthe 58 items to
tick-marked by the respondents on a 1-3 point scale, as
These were to be
'most often'., 'occasionally' and 'never'. Thus
behaviour occurred
what extent the were divided into three
174. These scores
between 58 and
the scores range
normal population (N = 600)
obtained by the
categories based on the scores
as follows:
pathological population (N =200). The categories are
and the
58-96
Low problem behaviour
97-135
Moderate problem behaviour
136-174
High problem behaviour
from 58-174, the rating; low, moderate and high will fall on
In ascale running
below :
the continuum as given in the figure

97 136 174
58
Low -b Moderate A -High -

The mean and standard deviation for behaviour problem scores for the
normal population of N = 600and parents vith children manifesting problem
nehaviour N= 200 were worked out. The tabls below presents the details.
 21
28
6 | Manual for PBCL
TABLE1

Groups Mean Standard deviation

Normal population 57.38 8,42 600

Psychiatric population 158.78 6.88 200

RELIABILITY
index of
(0) The test-retest reliability for this scale was xt =.85, with an
reliability was 0.85.
items applying Spearman
(i) The split-half reliability correlating odd even
found to be xt =.72, N =
Brown formula for doubling the test length was
600, with an index of reliability r = .81.
These are presented in Table 2
TABLE 2

Split-half and test-retest reliability values

N Index of reliability

600 .81
Split-half
600 .85
Test-retest

VALIDITY
The face validity of the questionnaire appeared to be fairly high as the items
were prepared following intensive interviews with 300 couples regarding the
extent of problem behavíour in their children as perceived by them.
() The content validity was adequately assured as only those items were
selected for the initial questionnaire for which there was complete agreement
amongst the experis.
 Manual for PBCL |7
Finally, items which showed a lhigh discHninating value following item
rneaningfulness of the
analysis were selected for the tinal test he hagnostic
was also taken into consideration
items at the time of final selection
REFERENCES

Edelbrock, C. S. (1983). Manual for Child Behaviour

Achenbach, T.M. and
Profile Department of Psychiatry.
Checklist and Revised Behaviour
University of Vermont, Burlington. assessment
resolutiorn of conceptual issues in the
Buraess, P.M. (1990). TOwards therapy. Journai of Cognitive
rational emotive
of beliefs systems in
Quarterly, 4, 171-84.
Psychotherapy: An International
(1980). Cogniive self statement in depression
Holland, S.D. and Kendal, P.C. questionnaire. Cogniive Therapy
automatic thoughts
Development of an
and lesearch, 4, 383-95.
(1988). Cognitive As sessment in A.S. Bellack
Linscott, J. and DiGiuseppe, R.
Behavioural Assessment, APractical Handbook.
and M. Hersen (Eds.),
Allyn & Bacon, London.
Joiner, T.E. Young. J. and Teich, M.J. (1995). The schema
Schmidt, N.B.; hierarchicai
and the
questionnaire, Investigation of psychometric properties
Cognitive Therapy ana
structure of a measure of maladaptive schema.
Research, 19, 295-321.

O2000. All rights reserved. No portlon of thls scale nalerials shouldbe roproduced in any form without the
Witten perinlcsBon of the author and ty publishers, Problom Behaviour Chock List (P aC L).