Compares the problems reported by parents of immigrant or refugee children from diverse cultures, as well as indigenous children, to identify needs that may require special interventions. This cross-cultural study involved administration of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to more than 13,000 children and adolescents from Australia, Belgium, China, Germany, Greece, Israel, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. Three analyses were employed: the Total Problem score; the Internalizing score, the sum of scores on items in the Withdrawn, Somatic Complaints, and Anxious/Depressed syndrome profiles; and the Externalizing score, the sum of scores on the Delinquent and Aggressive syndromes profiles. Results revealed that the Puerto Rican and Greek scores were considerably higher than the mean across the analyses, whereas the Swedish scores were considerably lower. Externalizing scores were found to decrease significantly with age, while Internalizing scores increased. Boys obtained slightly higher Total Problem scores than did girls across all cultures; boys also had higher Externalizing scores, while girls had higher Internalizing scores. Findings that immigrant children score higher than the indigenous children on particular problems can alert clinicians to needs for special help, without necessarily signifying that the elevated problems constitute disorders.
