The Child Behavior Checklist, Teacher Report Form and Youth Self Report problem scales in a normative sample of Croatian children and adolescents aged 7-18.

The main goal of this study was to standardize the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Teacher Report Form (TRF) and Youth Self Report (YSR) questionnaire problem scales on a normative random sample of children and adolescents (N=3309) aged 7 to 18 throughout Croatia. The second goal was to compare boys-girls problem scales data and CBCL-TRF-YSR differences in our sample. The mean value of CBCL scores for the Total Problems scale for different groups (children/adolescents; boys/girls) ranged from 17.07 to 20.71. Overall instruments' internal consistency ranged from 0.83 to 0.86. In almost all the scales parents reported higher scores than teachers (p < 0.01). In all the scales adolescents reported significantly higher scores than their parents and teachers (p < 0.01). This study standardized the questionnaires for our specific socio-cultural circle, which satisfy complex psychopathology study criteria. Problem scales results in our sample suggest similarity to previous European researches.

Comparison of self-reported and parent-reported emotional and behavioral problems in adolescents from Croatia.

The first goal of this study was to obtain, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Youth Self-Report (YSR) problem-scales data for youths in Croatia, and compare them to the original American sample. The second goal of this study was to compare boys -girls problem scales data and CBCL-YSR differences. The instruments were administered to school adolescents aged between 12-18 comprising a non-referred sample (n=611) drawn from the whole country. Youths, compared to their parents, rated higher scores in all scales in both sexes (p < 0.001). According to parents' reports boys had higher scores in more scales (five out of eleven). According to adolescents'self-reports girls had higher scores in more scales (seven out of eleven). Consistent with other studies, Croatian sample confirmed a larger number of serious behavioral and emotional problems reported by adolescents. Adolescents were confirmed as the most reliable informants on their problems.