Measurement Invariance of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) Across Race/Ethnicity and Sex in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study

There are numerous studies examining differences in the experience of disorders and symptoms of psychopathology in adolescents across racial or ethnic groups and sex. Though there is substantial research exploring potential factors that may influence these differences, few studies have considered the potential contribution of measurement properties to these differences. Therefore, this study examined whether there are differences across racial or ethnic groups and sex in the measurement of psychopathology, assessed in motherreported behavior of 9–11 year old youth from the Adolescent Brain CognitiveDevelopment study sample using updated Child Behavior Checklist scales (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001). Tests of measurement invariance of the CBCL utilized the higher order factor structure identified byMichelini et al. (2019) using this same Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development cohort. The dimensions include internalizing, somatoform, detachment, externalizing, and neurodevelopmental problems. The configural model had a good-to-excellent fit on all subscales of the CBCL across racial or ethnic groups and sex. The metric and scalar models fit just as well as the configural models, indicating that the scales are measuring the same constructs across racial or ethnic groups and sex and are not influenced by measurement properties of items on the CBCL, although some highseverity response options were not endorsed for youth in all racial or ethnic groups. These findings support the use of the CBCL in research examining psychopathology in racially or ethnically diverse samples of youth.