Behavior Checklist Factor Analysis for Children and Adolescents

The expected overlap between "hyperactivity" and "inattentive unproductiveness" did not appear, supporting speculation that though both appear in minimal brain dysfunction, they vary independently, and there was a trend for most factors to correlate positively with age in the younger group and negatively with Age in the older group.

Abstract

Principal axis factor analysis of 76 behavioral items rated by parents resulted in six factors from 185 young children (age 12 years or less), and in essentially the same six plus one additional factor from 166 teen-agers. At both ages "unsocialized aggression" overlapped with "sociopathy." However, the expected overlap between "hyperactivity" and "inattentive unproductiveness" (learning disability?) did not appear, supporting speculation that though both appear in minimal brain dysfunction, they vary independently. Other factors were "withdrawal-depression," "somatic" and "sleep disturbance." There was a trend for most factors to correlate positively with age in the younger group and negatively with age in the older group, except for hyperactivity, which correlated negatively with age in both groups. Though five of six factors in the younger group correlated significantly with socioeconomic status, none of the seven teen-age factors did.