DOI: 10.60641/9dqf-1671
title: Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) 6-18

description: The Netherlands Twin Register (NTR) consists of individuals who have agreed to participate in twin-family studies and was established and is managed by the Department of Biological Psychology, VU University Amsterdam (see: https://tweelingenregister.vu.nl/). The NTR was established in 1987 and has enrolled around 120.000 twins and a roughly equal number of their relatives. The majority of twin families have participated one or more times in survey studies on a host of epidemiological variables including social demography, personality, lifestyle, somatic and mental health, and subsamples took part in biomaterial collection (e.g. DNA) and dedicated projects for e.g. neuropsychological, biomarker, and behavioral traits. The recruitment into the NTR is fully inclusive without any restrictions on enrolment. The NTR is committed to actively seek the commitment of its participants to science and their continued involvement in NTR research by maintaining a website, electronic newsletters, and the MijnNTR portal that provides personalized feedback to participants. The NTR resources, e.g. the longitudinal phenotyping, the extended pedigree structures, and the multi-generation genotyping allow for future twin-family research that will contribute to gene discovery, causality modelling, and studies of genetic and cultural inheritance of behavioral traits and mental and physical health. In the CID data catalogue, only the NTR projects for children and adolescents (<18 years of age) have been included. This is refered to as the Young Netherlands Twin Register (YNTR). 
description: The Child Behavior Check List (CBCL 6-18) is part of the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA) taxonomy and is a validated instrument to assess psychiatric symptoms in both clinical and research settings. The ASEBA parent report version for youths 6 to 18 years of age potentially includes the syndrome scales Anxious/Depressed, Withdrawn/Depressed, Somatic Complaints, Social Problems, Thought Problems, Attention Problems, Rule Breaking Behavior, and Aggressive Behavior, the DSM-oriented scales Depressive Problems, Anxiety Problems, Somatic Problems, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Problems, Oppositional Defiant Problems, Conduct Problems, Sluggish Cognitive Tempo, Obsessive-Compulsive Problems, and Stress Problems, the broadband scales Internalizing, Externalizing, and Total Problems, and, optionally, the competence scales Activities, Social, School, and Total Competence.
description: In NTR projects YS_7, YS_10, and YS_12, the CBCL 4-18 (Achenbach, T. M. (1991). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist/4-18 and 1991 profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry) was used from 1995 to 2004 and the CBCL 6-18 is used from 2005. This resulted in the updating of 6 items: item 2 (4-18 = allergy, 6-18 = Drinks alcohol without parents’ approval), item 4 (4-18 = Asthma, 6-18 = Fails to finish things he/she starts), item 5 (4-18 = Behaves like someone of the opposite the sex, 6-18 = There is very little he/she enjoys), item 28 (4-18 = Eat and drinks things that are not eatable (no candys), 6-18 = Breaks rules at home, school, or elsewhere), item 78 (4-18 = lubricate or plays with own stool, 6-18 = Inattentive or easily distracted), and item 99 (4-18 = Tries to be too neat and too clean, 6-18 = Smokes, chews, or sniffs tobacco) are new. In NTR projects YS_7, YS_10, YS_12, YC_ACTIONBB2, YC_ACTIONBB3, YC_BS2, and YC_BS3, two items of the CBCL 4-18 (item 5: Behaves like someone of the opposite the sex, and item 99: Tries to be too neat and too clean) were added as extra items at the end of the CBCL 6-18. In NTR project YS_12, the CBCL 6-18 was replaced with the BPM in 2017-2018, and the CBCL 6-18 was again collected starting in 2019. In NTR projects YC_BS1 and YE_ATTEF2, the CBCL 4-18 was used instead of the CBCL 6-18. In NTR projects YC_DSC and YC_ADHMRI, the CBCL 4-18 Attention Problem scale (11 items) was completed by the mother during a telephone interview, after the telephone interview mothers (YC_DSC) or parents (YC_ADHMRI) were asked to complete the CBCL 4-18. In 1998 and 1999, parents of 4-11 year old triplets were invited to fill in the CBCL 4-18, and depending on their age, the triplets are divided in age group 4 (YS_TRIP4), 7 (YS_TRIP7), or 10 (YS_TRIP10). In 2010, the CBCL 6-18 was sent to both parents of 6-12 year old triplets, 4-5 year old triplets were binned into YS_TRIP4, 6-8 year old triplets were binned into YS_TRIP7, 9-10 year old triplets were binned into YS_TRIP10, and 11-12 year old triplets were binned into YS_TRIP12. After 2010, the collection of the CBCL 16-18 is scheduled annually for age groups 7 (YS_TRIP7), 10 (YS_TRIP10), and 12 (YS_TRIP12). The competence scales and the DSM-oriented Sluggish Cognitive Tempo scale are not available in NTR. Instead of the DSM-oriented scale "Depressive Problems" the NTR has the DSM-oriented scale "Affective Problems". Four additional syndrome scales are available in the NTRL: the Autism scale (10 items), the Dysregulation Profile (41 items, sum of the Anxious/Depressed, Aggressive Behavior, and Attention Problems items), Irritability scale (3 items), and Self Control scale (8 items, see Willems et al. 2018 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-018-9887-1)). The additional Self Control scale is not (yet) calculated for YC_DSC, YE_ATTEF2, and YC_ADHMRI.