Bekiropoulou Aikaterini, Eyre Olga, Heron Jon, Thapar Anita, Riglin Lucy
Wolfson Centre for Young People's Mental Health and Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University, Hadyn Ellis Building, Maindy Road, Cardiff, CF24 4HQ, UK.
Population Health Sciences and MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2025 Jul 12. doi: 10.1007/s00787-025-02817-3.
Irritability is a transdiagnostic phenomenon, frequently present in youth mental health services, and associated with multiple adverse outcomes. Irritability research suggests developmental, sex, and informant differences, but robust assessment requires comparison of the same or equivalent measures. Studies on irritability measurement invariance (equivalence) across age, sex, and informant remain limited. This research investigated measurement invariance across age, sex, and informant (parent/self), in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Primary analyses assessed age (N = 9,809) and sex (N = 9,803) invariance in irritability measured using the parent-rated Development And Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA) at ages 7-25, and informant invariance (parent- versus self-report) was tested at age 25, separately for males (N = 2,494) and females (N = 3,408). We did not find evidence of even weak (metric) invariance across age, indicating that the DAWBA-measured irritability may not be developmentally comparable. Findings by sex were mixed, with strict invariance suggested at age 13, strong at age 7, weak at age 25, and not even weak at ages 10 and 15, suggesting that the DAWBA may not always capture the same irritability construct across sex. Informant invariance levels were measure- specific. The DAWBA demonstrated strict invariance across informants for both males and females, suggesting equivalent interpretation of irritability items and similar residuals at age 25 for self- and parent-reports. However secondary informant analyses, assessed separately for males (N = 2,505) and females (N = 3,415) in the Affective Reactivity Index (ARI) at age 25, did not support even weak invariance for males, but found evidence of strict invariance for females. Our findings suggest that for the DAWBA, comparisons of mean irritability scores are likely valid across parent-/self-reports at age 25, but incomparable across age and sex; for the ARI, parent-/self-reports may be comparable at age 25 for females, but not males.
易怒是一种跨诊断现象，在青少年心理健康服务中经常出现，并与多种不良后果相关。易怒研究表明存在发育、性别和信息提供者方面的差异，但可靠的评估需要对相同或等效的测量方法进行比较。关于易怒测量在年龄、性别和信息提供者之间的不变性（等效性）的研究仍然有限。本研究在雅芳亲子纵向研究中调查了年龄、性别和信息提供者（父母/自我）之间的测量不变性。主要分析评估了7至25岁时使用父母评定的发育与幸福感评估（DAWBA）测量的易怒在年龄（N = 9809）和性别（N = 9803）上的不变性，并在25岁时分别对男性（N = 2494）和女性（N = 3408）测试了信息提供者不变性（父母报告与自我报告）。我们没有发现年龄之间存在哪怕是微弱（度量）不变性的证据，这表明DAWBA测量的易怒在发育上可能不可比。按性别分类的结果参差不齐，13岁时显示严格不变性，7岁时为强不变性，25岁时为弱不变性，10岁和15岁时甚至不存在微弱不变性，这表明DAWBA可能并非总能在不同性别中捕捉到相同的易怒结构。信息提供者不变性水平因测量方法而异。DAWBA显示男性和女性在信息提供者之间都具有严格不变性，这表明在25岁时，对于自我报告和父母报告，易怒项目的解释等效且残差相似。然而，在25岁时对男性（N = 2505）和女性（N = 3415）分别进行的情感反应指数（ARI）的次要信息提供者分析中，男性甚至不存在微弱不变性的证据，但发现女性存在严格不变性的证据。我们的研究结果表明，对于DAWBA，25岁时父母/自我报告之间的平均易怒得分比较可能有效，但在年龄和性别之间不可比；对于ARI，25岁时女性的父母/自我报告可能可比，但男性不可比。
