Symptoms of depression and anxiety, behavioral problems and anger have become increasingly common in the population and appear at an earlier age. For faster and more efficient identification of children and adolescents who need a more extensive evaluation, a short, simple and quick assessment such as the BYI-II inventory is recommended for the evaluation of depression, anxiety, disruptive behavior, anger and self-concept of children and adolescents. Psychometric characteristics of the first and second edition of the BYI inventory were evaluated in different parts of the world, and the aim of this paper is to examine the interrelationship between five inventories and their convergent and divergent validity in Croatia. An additional objective was to examine gender and age differences in the results of children aged 7 to 18 years in Croatia with regard to those 5 dimensions of the BYI-II. The study included 835 students of primary and secondary schools between the ages of 7 and 18 who completed on all five BYI-II inventories and an anxiety inventory (STAIC or STAI). Factor analysis of all 100 items of five inventories has confirmed the existence of three factors identified as the factor of negative affect, behavior and disruptive factor and factor of negative self-concept. The parallel application of anxiety questionnaires (STAIC/STAI) confirmed the convergent validity of BAI-Y, and it’s divergent validity, except for comorbidity with BDI-Y. Significant differences based on age were found in all five Beck inventories, with levels of self-concept increasing with age and the results of the remaining four inventory decreasing. As expected, the symptoms of depression and anxiety were significantly more common in girls, while disruptive behavior was more common in boys.

depression, anxiety, disruptive behavior, anger, self-concept