Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ)

The CBQ uses caregiver reports to provide a detailed profile of young children's temperament. The CBQ was designed to be used for research purposes.

Intrapersonal competencies; Interpersonal competencies

Ages 3 to 7

2001

1997

Parent or other caregiver

Paper/Pencil

195

Seven-point Likert-type scale

No information is available in the references reviewed.

Over 20 languages, including English, Spanish, Dutch, French, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, German, and Hebrew

None

No overall scores are reported.

15 subscores are reported:

• Positive anticipation
• High-intensity pleasure
• Smiling/Laughter
• Activity level
• Impulsivity
• Shyness
• Discomfort
• Fear
• Anger/Frustration
• Sadness
• Soothability
• Inhibitory control
• Approach
• Attentional focusing
• Low-intensity pleasure
• Perceptual sensitivity

Scoring information is available upon request from the developer.

No information is available in the references reviewed.

Evidence was collected from several different samples. For factor analysis, the sample included parents of children ages 4 to 7 from the northwestern and midwestern regions of the United States (N=857), as well as a sample of 3-year-olds from the same regions (N=149).

Samples of Chinese (N=468) and Japanese (N=372) students were used to test for cross-cultural measurement invariance.

Different samples were used for investigations of relationships with external variables and for reliability estimation (Rothbart et al., 2001).

Internal consistency estimates ranged from 0.67 to 0.94 for all scales, with a mean internal consistency estimate of 0.77 across all 15 subscores. Inter-rater agreement estimates ranged from 0.28 to 0.71, with a mean agreement estimate of 0.51.

Test-retest reliability was estimated separately for mothers and fathers over a two-year period. For mothers, test-retest reliability ranged from 0.50 to 0.79 (mean of 0.65). For fathers, it ranged from 0.48 to 0.76 (mean of 0.63) (Rothbart et al., 2001).

Evidence based on content

Items were adapted from previously existing questionnaires, including the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (Rothbart, 1981) and the Physiological Reactions Questionnaire (Derryberry & Rothbart, 1988).

Evidence based on response processes

A small group of parents (N=15) completed questionnaires out loud, commenting on any items that were problematic and suggesting item revisions (Rothbart et al., 2001).

Evidence based on internal structure

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to substantiate the subscales. Models were fit separately by age (4-5 year-olds, 6-7 year-olds) to obtain evidence of configural invariance. Models were fit separately in Japanese and Chinese samples to obtain evidence for cross-cultural invariance (Rothbart et al., 2001).

Evidence based on relations with other variables

For a subset of the sample, mothers were administered the CBQ and other scales designed to assess aggressiveness, empathy, guilt/shame, help-seeking, and negativity. Regression was used to explore relationships between CBQ scales and these external measures. Relationships were significant and in the anticipated direction (Rothbart et al., 2001).

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