[Spanish version of ECBI (Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory): measurement of validity].

OBJECTIVES

To translate into Castilian (Spanish) and measure the validity of the ECBI (Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory), a questionnaire to screen behavioural disorders in pre-school children.

DESIGN

Translation and back-translation of the ECBI. A descriptive crossover study.

SETTING

Primary Care Paediatrics.

PATIENTS

All the 3, 4 and 5-year olds from 4 paediatric clinics at 4 Health Centres (n = 527). One refusal.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

The questionnaire was filled in by the children's mothers and was repeated 20 days afterwards for 35 children. High coefficients of internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.87) and stability (intragroup correlation = 0.89 [0.78-0.94]) were obtained. There was good factorial validity, as 84% of the variance was explained by the four factors with value greater than 1.

CONCLUSIONS

The Spanish version of the ECBI is a brief and easy questionnaire with good results in psychometric assessment. Therefore, it can be recommended for use in paediatric Primary Care in order to detect children with behavioural problems.