Article Text
Abstract
Objectives To develop and validate brief scales to measure common emotional and behavioural problems among adolescents in the examination-oriented education system and collectivistic culture of China.
Setting Middle schools in Hunan province.
Participants 5442 middle school students aged 11–19 years were sampled. 4727 valid questionnaires were collected and used for validation of the scales. The final sample included 2408 boys and 2319 girls.
Primary and secondary outcome measures The tools were assessed by the item response theory, classical test theory (reliability and construct validity) and differential item functioning.
Results Four scales to measure anxiety, depression, study problem and sociality problem were established. Exploratory factor analysis showed that each scale had two solutions. Confirmatory factor analysis showed acceptable to good model fit for each scale. Internal consistency and test–retest reliability of all scales were above 0.7. Item response theory showed that all items had acceptable discrimination parameters and most items had appropriate difficulty parameters. 10 items demonstrated differential item functioning with respect to gender.
Conclusions Four brief scales were developed and validated among adolescents in middle schools of China. The scales have good psychometric properties with minor differential item functioning. They can be used in middle school settings, and will help school officials to assess the students’ emotional/behavioural problems.
- depression
- anxiety
- child health
- behavioral problem
- item response theory
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Footnotes
Contributors MH and ZS conceived and designed the study. MH collected the data. MS analysed the data and drafted the manuscript. All authors gave final approval to the version submitted for publication.
Funding This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (30400355) and China Scholarship Council (201406370034).
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Obtained.
Ethics approval The Ethics Committee of Central South University.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement No additional data are available.