Measurement equivalence across racial/ethnic groups of the mood and feelings questionnaire for childhood depression

J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2012 Apr;40(3):353-67. doi: 10.1007/s10802-011-9569-4.

Abstract

As research continues to document differences in the prevalence of mental health problems such as depression across racial/ethnic groups, the issue of measurement equivalence becomes increasingly important to address. The Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ) is a widely used screening tool for child and adolescent depression. This study applied a differential item functioning (DIF) framework to data from a sample of 6th and 8th grade students in the Seattle Public School District (N = 3,593) to investigate the measurement equivalence of the MFQ. Several items in the MFQ were found to have DIF, but this DIF was associated with negligible individual- or group-level impact. These results suggest that differences in MFQ scores across groups are unlikely to be caused by measurement non-equivalence.

MeSH terms

  • Affect
  • Asian / ethnology
  • Asian / statistics & numerical data*
  • Black or African American / ethnology
  • Black or African American / statistics & numerical data*
  • Child
  • Depressive Disorder / diagnosis*
  • Depressive Disorder / ethnology*
  • Emotions
  • Female
  • Hispanic or Latino / ethnology
  • Hispanic or Latino / statistics & numerical data*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Surveys and Questionnaires*
  • Washington / epidemiology