Comparisons of problems reported by youths from seven countries

Abstract

Objective: This study compared ratings for self-reported behavioral and emotional problems in adolescents from seven countries.

Method: Youth Self-Report scores were analyzed for 7,137 adolescents ages 11-18 years from general population samples from Australia, China, Israel, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United States.

Results: Comparisons of problems scores yielded small to medium effect sizes for cross-cultural variations. Youths from China and Jamaica had the highest and youths from Israel and Turkey had the lowest mean total problems scores. With cross-cultural consistency, girls scored higher for internalizing and lower for externalizing than boys. Cross-cultural correlations were high among the mean item scores.

Conclusions: Empirically based assessment provided a robust method for assessing and comparing adolescents' self-reported problems. Self-reports thus supplemented empirically based assessments of parent-reported problems and offered a cost-effective way of identifying problems for which adolescents from diverse cultural backgrounds may need help.