Moriarity Daniel P, Mac Giollabhui Naoise, Cardoso Melo Dener, Hartman Catharina
University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
Assessment. 2025 Apr;32(3):356-367. doi: 10.1177/10731911241245875. Epub 2024 Apr 18.
The ability to quantify within-person changes in mental health is central to the mission of clinical psychology. Typically, this is done using total or mean scores on symptom measures; however, this approach assumes that measures quantify the same construct, the same way, each time the measure is completed. Without this quality, termed longitudinal measurement invariance, an observed difference between timepoints might be partially attributable to changing measurement properties rather than changes in comparable symptom measurements. This concern is amplified in research using different forms of a measure across developmental periods due to potential differences in reporting styles, item-wording, and developmental context. This study provides the strongest support for the longitudinal measurement invariance of the Anxiety Scale, Depression/Affective Problems: Cognitive Subscale, and the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Scale; moderate support for the Depression/Affective Problems Scale and the Somatic Scale, and poor support for the Depression/Affective Problems: Somatic Symptoms Subscale of the Dutch Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment Youth Self-Report and Adult Self-Report in a sample of 1,309 individuals ( = 1,090 population-based, = 219 clinic-based/referred to an outpatient clinic before age 11 years) across six waves of data (mean ages = 11 years at Wave 1 and 26 years at Wave 6).
量化个体心理健康变化的能力是临床心理学使命的核心。通常，这是通过症状测量的总分或平均分来完成的；然而，这种方法假定每次完成测量时，测量工具都以相同的方式量化相同的结构。如果没有这种被称为纵向测量不变性的特性，两个时间点之间观察到的差异可能部分归因于测量属性的变化，而不是可比症状测量的变化。由于报告方式、项目措辞和发展背景的潜在差异，在不同发育阶段使用不同形式测量工具的研究中，这种担忧更加突出。本研究为焦虑量表、抑郁/情感问题：认知子量表和注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）量表的纵向测量不变性提供了最有力的支持；为抑郁/情感问题量表和躯体量表提供了中等支持，而为荷兰基于实证评估的青少年自我报告和成人自我报告中的抑郁/情感问题：躯体症状子量表提供了较差的支持，该研究样本为1309人（1090人基于人群，219人基于诊所/11岁前被转诊至门诊），跨越六波数据（第1波平均年龄为11岁，第6波平均年龄为26岁）。
