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

Javier Ortuño-Sierra , Eduardo Fonseca-Pedrero , Rebeca Aritio-Solana , Alvaro Moreno Velasco (1) , Edurne Chocarro de Luis , Gunter Schumann (2) , Anna Cattrell , Herta Flor , Frauke Nees (3) , Tobias Banaschewski (3) , Arun Bokde (4) , Rob Whelan , Christian Buechel , Uli Bromberg (5) , Patricia Conrod (2) , Vincent Frouin (6) , Dimitri Papadopoulos-Orfanos (6) , Juergen Gallinat , Hugh Garavan (7) , Andreas Heinz , Henrik Walter , Maren Struve , Penny Gowland (8) , Tomáš Paus (9) , Luise Poustka , Jean-Luc Martinot (10) , Marie-Laure Paillère-Martinot (11) , Nora C. Vetter , Michael N. Smolka (12) , Claire Lawrence

1 Hereditary Cancer Program, Institut Català d'Oncologia, Girona Biomedical Research Institute
2 Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London
3 Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy [Mannheim]
4 Discipline of Psychiatry [Dublin]
5 UKE - Universitaetsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf = University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf [Hamburg]
6 NEUROSPIN - Service NEUROSPIN
7 University of Vermont [Burlington]
8 Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre [Nottingham]
9 MNI - McConnell Brain Imaging Centre
10 U1000 - Neuroimagerie en psychiatrie
11 Adolescent psychopathology and Medicine
12 TU Dresden - Technische Universität Dresden = Dresden University of Technology

The main purpose of the present study was to analyse the internal structure and to test the measurement invariance of the Strengths 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 (with correlated errors added) 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 score was 0.84, ranging between 0.69 and 0.78 for the SDQ subscales. The findings indicate that the SDQ's subscales need to be modified in various ways for screening emotional and behavioural problems in the five European countries that were analysed.

Domains: Medical Imaging

Javier Ortuño-Sierra, Eduardo Fonseca-Pedrero, Rebeca Aritio-Solana, Alvaro Moreno Velasco, Edurne Chocarro de Luis, et al.. New evidence of factor structure and measurement invariance of the SDQ across five European nations. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2015, ⟨10.1007/s00787-015-0729-x⟩. ⟨cea-01221880⟩