This study began approximately three years
ago. The last wave of data collection took place during the summer
of 1997. Most of the data collection was done during the summers
of 1996 and 1997. There are two main goals of this study. The
first goal is to standardize the Jamaican version of the parent,
teacher, self report forms of CBCL, while the second goal
is to determine how family and parent psychopathology predict problems
in Jamaican children.
Goal 1: Instrument Development:
Research assistants compiled data from interviews with referred (usually by the school, but sometimes by the family) children in Kingston (primarily) and other parts of the island. After compiling the data collected from the Jamaican clinics, items from these sources were compared to items found on Achenbach's (1991) Child Behavior Checklist. There was some overlap between the problems reported on the Jamaican youth and the existing U.S. normed CBCL. However, many of the problems were different. Thus, we began to work on constructing new measures.
As standard practice in the development of questionnaires
(e.g., Rosenbaum, 1980, p.111), focus groups were conducted in order to
assess items which parents and professionals who work with Jamaican youth
deemed appropriate for measuring poor adjustment in children. By
comparing and sometimes modifying the language from the overlapping items
and adding the new items that emerged from the interviews and focus groups,
a Jamaican version of the CBCL was created.
The Jamaican versions of the CBCL (parent, youth,
and teacher forms) are currently being standardized and normed, as
part of this study.
Location of measures: Focus group files are on SAM in C:\mydocuments\research\focusg^1 The measures themselves are stored on disk at University Printing. Hard copies should be printed and stored in file cabinet.
Data files: none
Papers written re: this project:
none
Status of project: instruments
are currently being standardized
Goal 2: Predicting Jamaican Child Problems:
We used the following measures to collect data from Jamaican children and parents/guardians.
General Information Form: The general information form is an open-ended questionnaire that provides information on several different dimensions including: a) religious background, b) clinical background, c) parents' education, d) parents' employment, e) household composition, f) sibship rank, g) living conditions, and h) parents' migration. The items (i.e. who is the person mainly responsible for raising the child?) reflect the child's personal background, as well as risk factors and physical/mental health history.
Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; Derogatis, 1983). The BSI is a 53-item self-administered measure. All items are rated on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 0-reflecting no distress to 4-indicating extreme distress. In it's original form, the BSI comprises nine dimensions labeled Somatization, Obsessive Compulsive, Interpersonal Sensitivity, Depression, Anxiety, Hostility, Phobic Anxiety, Paranoid Ideation, and Psychoticism, and total problem score.
Family Adaptation and Cohesion Environment Scales (FACES; Olson, 1989). The FACES is a 30 item scale. Subjects are asked to rate each statement (i.e. In our family it is easy for everyone to say what they think) on a 3-point scale: N=no, S=sometimes, and A=always. The FACES II enables the researcher or clinician to place individual family members or groups of families within the Circumplex Model. There are three primary dimensions integrated in the Circumplex Model, including cohesion, adaptability (change), and communication. However, only family cohesion and family adaptability are measured in the FACES II. Family cohesion assesses how much family members are separated from or connected to their family. Family adaptability has to do with the extent to which the family system is flexible and able to change. Communication is broken down into three sub-groups; Family communication, Parent-adolescent communication, and Marital communication.
Jamaican Youth Checklist (parent,
teacher, and youth versions). A Jamaican version of the Child Behavior
Checklist (Achenbach, 1991) was created in order to be culturally sensitive
(see next page for description of development).
Datasets:
CBCL data entered through the Achenbach program: On Sam in c:\data\Jam97cbcl\
Status of these datasets: F.Markle,
T.Roy, and A.Shanley checked this data. They found some problem CBCLs
that need to be re-entered. In addition, there are many (at least
100 blue but also some green and yellow forms) which need to be entered
for the first time. NOTE: before entering CBCLs, check to see if
files are in Jam97 file.
CBCL Extra item data:
On Frazier, c:data\JamCBCX\Parncbc – parent extra items entered prior to Jan 1998
Status of extra item data entry: Still
in progress
Jamaican Child Psychopathology General Information (& BSI, FACES) datasets:
Two slightly different General Information forms were used during 1997 and 1998. The different versions were printed on different colored paper. During 1997, the form was manilla. In 1998 the form was white. The instructions for coding and entering these two forms are in the codebook. The codebook file is located on Sam as a MS Works file: (c:\My Documents\Research\Instruments\Jamaican Gen Info\Revgen).
Gen Info datasets:
The datasets have been merged into Tracey2.dat, which is found on Sam:
c:\data\psychopathology\data\tracey2.dat
Status of project: Data is still
being processed.