THE CHILD-BEHAVIOR CHECKLIST IN A MELBOURNE URBAN SAMPLE

Child Behaviour Checklist scores for 7-, 12-, and 15-year-olds from a two-stage cluster sample of Melbourne schoolchildren were compared wit h U.S. 1991 norms and with children from Sydney. This study was prompt ed by a previous finding that Sydney parents rated children substantia lly higher on behaviour problems compared with U.S. norms. Response ra tes in Melbourne parents varied from 30-60% for the different age grou ps with 7-year-olds having the highest response rate. The Melbourne 7- year-olds' mean problem scores were not significantly different from t he U.S. norms. The 12- and 15-year-olds' scores were slightly lower th an U.S. norms. No significant differences were found for the total com petence score except for the 7-year-old boys, who scored lower than th e U.S. norms. In contrast, both the Melbourne and U.S. samples scored significantly lower than Sydney on the problem scores and the younger Sydney children scored significantly higher than Melbourne 7-year-olds on the competence score. Due to the modest response rates, especially for the older children, the low scores need to be interpreted with ca ution and should not be interpreted as Australian normative data. The differences between Melbourne and Sydney scores could not be fully exp lained, however, by differences in sample selection or SES distributio n. Despite the restrictions of this study, these results suggest.there is additional support for the view that the U.S. normative data may b e appropriate for use with Australian children.