New evidence of factor structure and measurement invariance of the SDQ across five European nations

Ortu�o-Sierra, Javier; Fonseca-Pedrero, Eduardo; Aritio-Solana, Rebeca; Velasco, Alvaro Moreno; de Luis, Edurne Chocarro; Schumann, Gunter; Cattrell, Anna; Flor, Herta; Nees, Frauke; Banaschewski, Tobias; Bokde, Arun; Whelan, Rob; Buechel, Christian; Bromberg, Uli; Conrod, Patricia; Frouin, Vincent; Papadopoulos, Dimitri; Gallinat, Juergen; Garavan, Hugh; Heinz, Andreas; Walter, Henrik; Struve, Maren; Gowland, Penny A.; Paus, Tom�; Poustka, Luise; Martinot, Jean-Luc; Paill�re-Martinot, Marie-Laure; Vetter, Nora C.; Smolka, Michael N.; Lawrence, Claire

Abstract

The main purpose of the present study was to test the internal structure and to study the measurement invariance of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), self-reported version, in five European countries. The sample consisted of 3012 adolescents aged between 12 and 17 years (M = 14.20; SD = 0.83). The five-factor model (with correlated errors added), and the five-factor model (with correlated errors added) with the reverse-worded items allowed to cross-load on the Prosocial subscale, displayed adequate goodness of-fit indices. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis showed that the five-factor model had partial strong measurement invariance by countries. A total of 11 of the 25 items were non-invariant across samples. The level of internal consistency of the Total difficulties scores was .84, ranging between .69 and .78 for the SDQ subscales. The findings indicate that the SDQ's scales need to be modified in various ways for screening emotional and behavioural problems in the five European countries that were analyzed.

Citation

Ortuño-Sierra, J., Fonseca-Pedrero, E., Aritio-Solana, R., Velasco, A. M., de Luis, E. C., Schumann, G., Cattrell, A., Flor, H., Nees, F., Banaschewski, T., Bokde, A., Whelan, R., Buechel, C., Bromberg, U., Conrod, P., Frouin, V., Papadopoulos, D., Gallinat, J., Garavan, H., Heinz, A., …Lawrence, C. (2015). New evidence of factor structure and measurement invariance of the SDQ across five European nations. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-015-0729-x

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jun 3, 2015
• Deposit Date: Sep 10, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 10, 2015
• Journal: European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
• Electronic ISSN: 1018-8827
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-015-0729-x
• Keywords: SDQ · Self-report · Adolescents · Factorial; structure · Measurement invariance · Behavioural problems
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/755291
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00787-015-0729-x
• Related Public URLs: http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/626/art%253A10.1007%252Fs00787-015-0729-x.pdf?originUrl=http%3A%2F%2Flink.springer.com%2Farticle%2F10.1007%2Fs00787-015-0729-x&token2=exp=1441876467~acl=%2Fstatic%2Fpdf%2F626%2Fart%25253A10.1007%25252Fs00787-015-072
• Additional Information: The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00787-015-0729-x