Latent class analysis of the Child Behavior Checklist Obsessive-Compulsive Scale

Abstract 

The Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (OCS) of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) predicts obsessive-compulsive disorder and is highly heritable. Latent class analysis (LCA) of the OCS was used to identify profiles within this 8-item scale and to examine heritability of those profiles. The LCA was performed on maternal CBCL reports of their 6- to 18-year–old children from 2 US nationally representative samples from 1989 (n = 2475, 50% male) and 1999 (n = 2029, 53% male) and from Dutch twins in the Netherlands Twin Registry at ages 7 (n = 10 194, 49.3% male), 10 (n = 6448, 48.1% male), and 12 (n = 3674, 48.6% male) years. The heritability of the resultant classes was estimated using odds ratios of twin membership across classes. A 4-class solution fitted all samples best. The resulting classes were a “No or Few Symptoms” class, a “Worries and Has to Be Perfect” class, a “Thought Problems” class, and an “OCS” class. Within-class odds ratios were higher than across-class odds ratios and were higher for monozygotic than dizygotic twins. We conclude that LCA identifies an OCS class and that class is highly heritable using across-twin comparisons.