Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York City, NY, USA.
Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2024 Dec;55(6):1526-1540. doi: 10.1007/s10578-023-01515-y. Epub 2023 Mar 1.
Interventionists interpret changes in symptoms as reflecting response to treatment. However, changes in symptom functioning and the measurement of the underlying constructs may be reflected in reported change. Longitudinal measurement invariance (LMI) is a statistical approach that assesses the degree to which measures consistently capture the same construct over time. We examined LMI in measures of anxiety severity/symptoms [i.e., Pediatric Anxiety Rating Scale (PARS), Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC), Screen for Child Anxiety and Related Disorders (SCARED)] in anxious youth at baseline and posttreatment. Initial fit was inadequate for 27 of 38 baseline and posttreatment models, but model modifications resulted in acceptable fit. Tests of LMI supported scalar invariance for the PARS and many, but not all, MASC and SCARED subscales. Findings suggest that the PARS, and many MASC and SCARED subscales can accurately be used to measure change over time, however, others may reflect changes in measurement properties.
介入治疗师将症状的变化解释为对治疗的反应。然而，症状功能的变化和潜在结构的测量可能反映在报告的变化中。纵向测量不变性（LMI）是一种统计方法，用于评估随着时间的推移，测量值是否能持续捕捉到相同的结构。我们在基线和治疗后评估了焦虑青少年严重程度/症状的测量值（即，儿科焦虑量表（PARS）、多维儿童焦虑量表（MASC）、儿童焦虑及相关障碍筛查（SCARED））的 LMI。初始拟合对于 38 个基线和治疗后模型中的 27 个模型来说是不够的，但是模型修改可以达到可接受的拟合度。LMI 的测试支持 PARS 的标量不变性，以及许多但不是全部的 MASC 和 SCARED 子量表。研究结果表明，PARS 和许多 MASC 和 SCARED 子量表可以准确地用于测量随时间的变化，然而，其他量表可能反映了测量属性的变化。
