RESEARCH ARTICLE
Child and Adolescent Behavior Inventory (CABI): A New Instrument for Epidemiological Studies and Pre-Clinical Evaluation
Carlo Cianchetti 1, *, Andrea Pittau 2, Valeria Carta 2, Grazia Campus 2, Roberta Littarru 2, Maria Giuseppina Ledda 1, Alessandro Zuddas 1, Giuseppina Sannio Fancello 2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2013Volume: 9
First Page: 51
Last Page: 61
Publisher ID: CPEMH-9-51
DOI: 10.2174/1745017901309010051
Article History:
Received Date: 18/6/2012Revision Received Date: 28/9/2012
Acceptance Date: 4/12/2012
Electronic publication date: 22/2/2013
Collection year: 2013
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background:
Some questionnaires have already been elaborated to collect information from parents of children and adolescents, both as preparation for clinical evaluation and for screening and epidemiological studies. Here a new questionnaire, the CABI, is proposed, and it is validated in a population of 8-10 year-old children. Compared to existing questionnaires, the CABI has been organized so as to be of medium length, with items concerning the most significant symptoms indicated by the DSM-IV-TR for the pertinent disorders, and covering a wider range than existing instruments. There is no charge for its use.
Methods:
The answers of the parents of 302 children in the last 3 years of primary school provided the normative data. A discriminant validation was done for internalizing and externalizing disorders and as a comparison with self-administered anxiety and depression scales. Exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency were also performed.
Results:
Distribution of scores on the main scales in the normal population shows positive skewness, with the most frequent score being zero. A highly discriminant capability was found in regard to the sample of children with internalizing and externalizing disorders, with high correlation with the self-administered anxiety and depression scales.
Conclusion:
The CABI appears to be capable, at least for 8-10 year-old children, of effectively discriminating those with pathological symptoms from those without. Compared with the widely- used CBCL, it has the advantages of a lower number of items, which should facilitate parental collaboration especially in epidemiological studies, and of being free of charge.
