Validation of the child behavior checklist for guardians of unaccompanied refugee minors

The objective of this study is to validate the Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL) for the legal guardians of unaccompanied refugee minors residing in the Netherlands. The legal guardians (caseworkers) of the unaccompanied minors (N = 920) that participated in the study all received a CBCL to report on the mental health of the unaccompanied minor. The guardians filled in and returned 478 CBCLs. The results of the hierarchical confirmative factor analyses support a one-factor and a two-factor structure of Externalizing and Internalizing scales equally well. Moreover, the fit of the original individual eight first order factor models of the a priori CBCL subscales was found to be moderate. The total, Internalizing, and Externalizing scales show good internal consistency. The construct and concurrent validity of the CBCL were also examined and found to be moderate to good. The findings of this study suggest that the CBCL is a reliable and valid measure for use by guardians to assess the maladaptive emotional and behavior problems of unaccompanied refugee minors.