Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Hospital of RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
PLoS One. 2020 Aug 3;15(8):e0232030. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0232030. eCollection 2020.
The Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire (INQ) assesses Thwarted Belongingness (TB) and Perceived Burdensomeness (PB), two predictors of suicidal thoughts. Up to now, the use of item response theory (IRT) for the evaluation of the INQ has been restricted to a single study with clinically depressed and suicidal youth. Therefore, the psychometric properties of the two INQ-15-subscales TB and PB were now evaluated in a general population sample (N = 2508) and a clinical adult population sample (N = 185) using IRT, specifically the Rasch model (RM) and the graphical log-linear Rasch model (GLLRM). Of special interest was whether the INQ-subscales displayed differential item functioning (DIF) across the two different samples and how well the subscales were targeted to the two sample populations. For the clinical sample, fit to a GLLRM could be established for the PB-subscale and fit to a RM was established for a five-item version of the TB-subscale. In contrast, for the general population sample fit to a GLLRM could only be achieved for the PB-subscale. Overall, there was strong evidence of local dependence (LD) across items and of some age- and gender-related DIF. Both subscales exhibited massive DIF related to the sample, indicating that they don't work the same across the general population and clinical sample. As expected, targeting of both INQ-subscales was much better for the clinical population. Further investigations of the INQ-15 under the Rasch approach in a large clinical population are recommended to determine and optimize the scale performance.
人际需求问卷（INQ）评估了受挫归属感（TB）和感知负担（PB），这两个因素是自杀想法的预测指标。到目前为止，项目反应理论（IRT）在 INQ 的评估中的应用仅限于一项针对临床抑郁和自杀青少年的研究。因此，现在使用 IRT（特别是 Rasch 模型（RM）和图形对数线性 Rasch 模型（GLLRM））在一般人群样本（N=2508）和临床成年人群样本（N=185）中评估了 INQ-15 两个子量表 TB 和 PB 的心理测量特性。特别感兴趣的是，INQ 子量表是否在两个不同的样本中表现出不同的项目功能差异（DIF），以及子量表在两个样本群体中的目标定位效果如何。对于临床样本，可以为 PB 子量表建立 GLLRM 的拟合度，并且可以为 TB 子量表的五项目版本建立 RM 的拟合度。相比之下，对于一般人群样本，只能为 PB 子量表建立 GLLRM 的拟合度。总体而言，项目之间存在很强的局部依赖性（LD），并且存在与年龄和性别相关的 DIF。两个子量表都表现出与样本相关的巨大 DIF，表明它们在一般人群和临床样本中的应用效果并不相同。正如预期的那样，两个 INQ 子量表的目标定位在临床人群中要好得多。建议在大型临床人群中采用 Rasch 方法进一步研究 INQ-15，以确定和优化该量表的性能。
