Assessment最新文献

Previous investigations on the underlying structure of psychopathology symptoms primarily focused at the between-person level and among adult samples. This study used two independent Canadian samples with month-long daily diary designs to investigate daily psychopathology structure at both within- and between-person level among adolescents (n = 99, 2,132 daily reports) and young adults (n = 313, 6,431 and 4,018 daily reports at each wave). Four mainstream types of psychopathology structure were compared based on a comprehensive set of standards. The results suggest that the general factor of psychopathology (p factor) derived from the higher-order and bifactor models performed similarly well at both within- and between-person levels, while the specific factors estimated in the bifactor models demonstrated low reliability and consistency over time. Psychopathology manifests as multidimensional at the within-person level but unidimensional at the between-person level. The current findings inform the development of future prevention and intervention programs by supporting the adoption of transdiagnostic treatment that addresses multiple psychopathology symptoms with a holistic approach.

Very few empirically validated tools exist for assessing reactive attachment disorder (RAD) and disinhibited social engagement disorder (DSED). The RAD and DSED assessment interview (RADA), a semistructured diagnostic interview, was updated in 2018 from the CAPA-RAD interview to reflect the diagnostic criteria changes in the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5). The aim of this study was to validate the RADA on school-age children in Canada. Caregivers of 5 to 12-year-old children from the community (n = 98), in foster care (n = 147), and in residential care (n = 123) completed the RADA interview and a series of questionnaires. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the RADA interview supported a four-factor structure similar to the DSM-5 symptom clusters. A short "strictly DSM-5" version of the RADA showed a two-factor structure-RAD and DSED-and an excellent fit to the data. Scales of both structures showed good-to-excellent internal consistency, interrater reliability, convergent validity, and known-group validity. Classifying the children yielded RAD and DSED rates of <1% and 18%, respectively, for children in foster care and 7% and 10%, respectively, for children in residential care. This study supports the validity of the RADA interview for school-age children and is the first to provide RAD and DSED rates for children in residential care.

Parent report measures developed in the Western world are commonly used to assess children's mental health, but their cross-cultural comparability is questionable. The present study examines the use of anchoring vignettes to assess and adjust for bias in five countries: the United States, Mexico, Germany, China, and Russia. Parents (N = 500) rated their child's mental health and vignettes depicting internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors in an online survey. Vignette ratings were used to assess bias and for rescaling. Cross-national comparisons of vignette scores revealed differences in the use of the scale range and overall level of vignette scores. Measurement invariance across countries improved after rescaling, resulting in weak invariance for internalizing and strong invariance for externalizing problem behavior. Rescaled scores revealed cross-national differences that were masked using the raw score. Results confirm the lacking cross-national comparability in parent reports of child mental health, and anchoring vignettes appear to be a useful tool for reducing bias.

Unlike depression sum scores, the underlying risk for depression is typically assumed to be normally distributed across the general population. To assess the true empirical shape of depression risk, we created a continuous-valued estimate of the latent depression density, using the Davidian-Curve Item Response Theory (DC-IRT) and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cohorts from 2005 to 2018 (n = 36,244 on the Nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire; PHQ-9). We conducted simulations to investigate the performance of DC-IRT for large samples and realistic items. The method can recover complex latent-risk distributions even when they are not evident from sum scores. However, estimation accuracy for different sample sizes depends on the method of model selection. In addition to full-data analysis, random samples of a few thousand observations were drawn for analysis. The latent shape of depression was left-skewed and bimodal in both investigations, indicating that the latent-normality assumption does not hold for depression.

Scores on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) are frequently used to assess depression both in research and in clinical practice. The aim was to examine the validity of the PHQ-9 sum score by using Mokken scale analysis (Study I) and cognitive interviews (Study II) on the Icelandic version of PHQ-9. A primary care sample of 618 individuals was used in Study I. The results indicate that the PHQ-9 items are not close enough to perfectly unidimensional for their sum score to accurately order people on the depression severity dimension. In Study II, the sample consisted of 53 individuals, with 28 having a history of depression and 25 not. The findings reveal a number of issues concerning respondents' use of the PHQ-9. No systematic differences were found in the results of the two groups. The PHQ-9 sum score should thus be interpreted and used with great care. We provide scale revision recommendations to improve the quality of PHQ-9.

Health anxiety is an intricate part of illness anxiety and somatic symptom disorder. Based on convenience samples, two out of three available studies indicate that it is a dimensional rather than a categorical construct. Using two representative datasets, this study investigates whether previous results can be clarified. Conventional taxometric analyses as well as comparison curve fit indices (CCFI) profile analyses (MAMBAC and MAXSLOPE procedures) were calculated with two datasets of the German adult population assessing the Whiteley Index (WI-14, N = 2,072; WI-7, N = 2,498). Mean CCFIs indicated a dimensional structure for both the WI-7 (mean CCFI = 0.42, mean CCFI profile = 0.40) and the WI-14 (mean CCFI = 0.44, mean CCFI profile = 0.32). The results support and extend previous findings by strongly suggesting a dimensional distribution of health anxiety in the general population. Implications for research and practice comprise the adoption of a dimensional description of psychopathology as well as transdiagnostic treatment approaches.