In our example, we selected items assessing internalizing symptoms administered as part of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1981), completed by MLS and AFDP participants, and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; Derogatis & Spencer, 1982), completed by MLS and AHBP participants. Because MLS participants completed both instruments, the MLS data provide a bridge between item sets. We also harmonized BSI and CBCL items with similar content to create common items across AFDP and AHBP and, given sparseness concerns, we recoded all items to be binary indicators of symptom presence or absence. After harmonization, we identified 33 items which we believed to be theoretically relevant to the construct of internalizing symptoms.
