Longitudinal Invariance of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Across Ages 4 to 16 in the ALSPAC Sample

Psychology

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Developmental Research Group

Text available via DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1177/10731911221128948
Final published version
Available under license: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Keywords

Child, Humans, Child, Preschool, Longitudinal Studies, Surveys and Questionnaires, Mental Disorders/diagnosis, Parents/psychology, Mental Health, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Psychometrics, Reproducibility of Results

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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

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Longitudinal Invariance of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Across Ages 4 to 16 in the ALSPAC Sample. / Speyer, Lydia Gabriela; Auyeung, Bonnie; Murray, Aja Louise.
In: Assessment, Vol. 30, No. 6, 01.09.2023, p. 1884-1894.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Bibtex

@article{292a84e308414e828ea256d60e16842f,

title = "Longitudinal Invariance of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Across Ages 4 to 16 in the ALSPAC Sample",

abstract = "The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) has been widely used to study children's psychosocial development longitudinally; however, such analyses assume longitudinal measurement invariance, that is, they presuppose that symptom manifestations are measured comparably across different ages. Violations of this assumption could bias longitudinal analyses and should therefore be empirically tested. This study tested longitudinal measurement invariance within a confirmatory factor analysis framework in the U.K.-based Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children ( N = 13,988). Results indicated that SDQ scores showed configural, metric, scalar, and residual invariance across ages 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, and 16, supporting its use for comparing variances, covariances, and means over time within a latent variable model as well as using observed scores. At age 4, configural invariance was not supported, indicating that mental health symptoms as measured by the SDQ manifest differently at this age, thus necessitating caution when comparing symptoms as measured by SDQ scores at this age to later ages. ",

keywords = "Child, Humans, Child, Preschool, Longitudinal Studies, Surveys and Questionnaires, Mental Disorders/diagnosis, Parents/psychology, Mental Health, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Psychometrics, Reproducibility of Results",

author = "Speyer, {Lydia Gabriela} and Bonnie Auyeung and Murray, {Aja Louise}",

year = "2023",

month = sep,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1177/10731911221128948",

language = "English",

volume = "30",

pages = "1884--1894",

journal = "Assessment",

issn = "1073-1911",

publisher = "SAGE Publications Inc.",

number = "6",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Longitudinal Invariance of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Across Ages 4 to 16 in the ALSPAC Sample

AU - Speyer, Lydia Gabriela

AU - Auyeung, Bonnie

AU - Murray, Aja Louise

PY - 2023/9/1

Y1 - 2023/9/1

N2 - The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) has been widely used to study children's psychosocial development longitudinally; however, such analyses assume longitudinal measurement invariance, that is, they presuppose that symptom manifestations are measured comparably across different ages. Violations of this assumption could bias longitudinal analyses and should therefore be empirically tested. This study tested longitudinal measurement invariance within a confirmatory factor analysis framework in the U.K.-based Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children ( N = 13,988). Results indicated that SDQ scores showed configural, metric, scalar, and residual invariance across ages 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, and 16, supporting its use for comparing variances, covariances, and means over time within a latent variable model as well as using observed scores. At age 4, configural invariance was not supported, indicating that mental health symptoms as measured by the SDQ manifest differently at this age, thus necessitating caution when comparing symptoms as measured by SDQ scores at this age to later ages.

AB - The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) has been widely used to study children's psychosocial development longitudinally; however, such analyses assume longitudinal measurement invariance, that is, they presuppose that symptom manifestations are measured comparably across different ages. Violations of this assumption could bias longitudinal analyses and should therefore be empirically tested. This study tested longitudinal measurement invariance within a confirmatory factor analysis framework in the U.K.-based Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children ( N = 13,988). Results indicated that SDQ scores showed configural, metric, scalar, and residual invariance across ages 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, and 16, supporting its use for comparing variances, covariances, and means over time within a latent variable model as well as using observed scores. At age 4, configural invariance was not supported, indicating that mental health symptoms as measured by the SDQ manifest differently at this age, thus necessitating caution when comparing symptoms as measured by SDQ scores at this age to later ages.

KW - Child

KW - Humans

KW - Child, Preschool

KW - Longitudinal Studies

KW - Surveys and Questionnaires

KW - Mental Disorders/diagnosis

KW - Parents/psychology

KW - Mental Health

KW - Factor Analysis, Statistical

KW - Psychometrics

KW - Reproducibility of Results

U2 - 10.1177/10731911221128948

DO - 10.1177/10731911221128948

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 36254666

VL - 30

SP - 1884

EP - 1894

JO - Assessment

JF - Assessment

SN - 1073-1911

IS - 6

ER -

Research

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