Advances in empirically based assessment: Revised cross-informant syndromes and new DSM-oriented scales for the CBCL, YSR, and TRF: Comment on Lengua, Sadowksi, Friedrich, and Fisher (2001)
Tm. Achenbach et L. Dumenci, Advances in empirically based assessment: Revised cross-informant syndromes and new DSM-oriented scales for the CBCL, YSR, and TRF: Comment on Lengua, Sadowksi, Friedrich, and Fisher (2001), J CONS CLIN, 69(4), 2001, pp. 699-702
L. Lengua et al. (2001) proposed scoring the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL
; T. Achenbach, 1991b) on dimensions that "correspond to current conceptual
izations of child symptomatology," (p. 695) embodied in the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV, 4th ed, American Psychiatri
c Association, 1994). They concluded that their "results support the use of
the new dimensions." Yet, their regressions and diagnostic efficiency stat
istics showed that DSM diagnoses were predicted less well by their dimensio
ns than by CBCL syndromes that reflect actual patterns of problems. Not onl
y these findings, but also the high correlations of their dimensions with.
CBCL syndromes and the lack of norms and validated clinical cutoffs for the
ir dimensions, argue against use of their dimensions. To advance assessment
and taxonomy, new national samples have been used to construct DSM-oriente
d scales and to revise cross-informant syndromes.