The Utility of Behavior Checklist Ratings in Differentiating Developmentally Disabled from Psychiatrically Referred Children

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Abstract
The Missouri Children's Behavior Checklist ratings were obtained on 50 children referred to a child psychiatry clinic, 50 children referred to a developmental disabilities clinic, and 50 nonreferred controls. Samples were individually matched on age, sex, and socioeconomic status, with each sample consisting of 30 males and 20 females. As predicted, the psychiatric sample was rated significantly higher in problems related to aggression, activity level, and sleep disturbance than the developmental disabilities sample. Both referred groups were rated significantly higher than non-referred controls on these scales. On other behavioral dimensions, the developmentally disabled were similar to either the psychiatric or the control sample, but in sociability they were rated lower than either of the other groups. These findings, and separate analyses for each sex, are discussed in terms of the utility of the checklist method in discriminating between subgroups of referred children.

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