Brief report: A confirmatory factor analysis of the Child Behavior Checklist in a large sample of autistic youth

Background Autistic youth often experience co-occurring psychiatric conditions. Checklist measures such as the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) can assist clinicians and researchers in assessing the symptom profiles of such conditions. Symptom profiles often overlap between autism and cooccurring psychiatric conditions (e.g., depression) in which the same symptoms occur in both. Previous research investigating the validity of the CBCL in autistic populations using factor structure has been mixed. Method Seven-hundred-and-fourteen autistic youth (293 females) aged 6–18 years (M = 11.25, SD = 3.29) participated. A confirmatory factor analysis of the 8-factor CBCL-6–18 was completed. Results Results suggest a poor model fit in autistic samples of the widely used eight-scale factor structure. Conclusions This model may not fit this sample due to the overlap of symptomatology autism has with other psychiatric condition profiles (e.g., communication and behaviors). Future research and implications, including an exploratory factor analysis on the CBCL/6–18 for autistic populations, are discussed.