utility of screening instrument for behavioral problems of children in clinical and community samples

A total of 1563 children were surveyed using the Connors Parent Teacher Rating Scale [C P T R S] in different clinical [N=307] and community [N=1256] samples. Although the CPTRS was found to be limited in its capacity to search for behavioral problems in school-aged children, this instrument was more effective in discriminating higher rates of behavioral problems in clinical and high risk samples [66%] in comparison to lower rates [22%] in community nonreferred children, particularly for preschoolers and younger children. Our results are suggestive of a good discriminate validity of this instrument. The implications of further use of CPTRS in epidemiological research on Egyptian children are discussed