Wie verlässlich sind Einschätzungen schizophren erkrankter Eltern hinsichtlich möglicher Entwicklungsstörungen bei ihren Kindern? Zur Übereinstimmungsvalidität der Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)

Objective: It is well-established that children of parents with psychiatric diagnoses have a higher risk of developmental disorders. However, research addressing developmental disorders in children often solely relies on assessments made by the afflicted parents. It is unclear whether these parental judgments are diagnostically accurate.

Methods: N = 50 parents suffering from schizophrenia were asked to complete the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). At the same time, structured psychiatric interviews were conducted with the children. The results of these instruments were statistically compared.

Results: 52% of the parents assessed their children within the clinical or borderline range in at least one of the CBCL second-order syndrome scales. Psychiatric interviews revealed that more than half of the children had a diagnosis according to DSM-IV. Statistical analysis yielded a moderate correlation of the CBCL syndrome scales and the clinical diagnoses.

Conclusions: Assessments of parents with schizophrenia as to possible developmental disorders in their children are quite dependable on a general level. Thus, our findings indicate that questionnaires such as the CBCL could be useful for screening purposes, in order to detect possible developmental disorders and risks in the children of psychiatric patients.