DISC Predictive Scales (DPS): Factor structure and uniform differential item functioning across gender and three racial/ethnic groups for ADHD, conduct disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms.

Abstract

The factor structure and potential uniform differential item functioning (DIF) among gender and three racial/ethnic groups of adolescents (African American, Latino, White) were evaluated for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder (CD), and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptom scores of the DISC Predictive Scales (DPS; Leung et al., 2005; Lucas et al., 2001). Primary caregivers reported on DSM–IV ADHD, CD, and ODD symptoms for a probability sample of 4,491 children from three geographical regions who took part in the Healthy Passages study (mean age = 12.60 years, SD = 0.66). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the expected 3-factor structure was tenable for the data. Multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) modeling revealed uniform DIF for three ADHD and 9 ODD item scores, but not for any of the CD item scores. Uniform DIF was observed predominantly as a function of child race/ethnicity, but minimally as a function of child gender. On the positive side, uniform DIF had little impact on latent mean differences of ADHD, CD, and ODD symptomatology among gender and racial/ethnic groups. Implications of the findings for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

Medication Decision Making Among African American Caregivers of Children With ADHD: A Review of the Literature

“…One potential explanation is the validity of standardized ADHD rating scales in African American children. Factor structure and individual item performance of standardized instruments may not measure ADHD severity equally across races (Hillemeier et al, 2007; Miller et al, 2009; Wiesner et al, 2015). For example, differences in cultural processes behind parental and teacher ratings of behaviors may yield differing thresholds for acceptability of “argued or talked back” on a scale (Wiesner et al, 2015).…”

Raters Interpret Positively and Negatively Worded Items Similarly in a Quality of Life Instrument for Children

“…For IRT and multigroup CFA, both share the advantage of nonuniform factorial invariance; that is, they estimate both item intercepts and factor loadings for invariance, while OLR cannot. 26 , 45 Both OLR and multigroup CFA have the advantage of adjusting confounders in the model; that is, they can allow additional variable in the model, while IRT cannot. 26 Multigroup CFA, however, treats the items as continuous variables, which is apparently not the case in the Kid-KINDL that adopts Likert-type scales.…”

Age and Gender Measurement Noninvariance of the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale Screener

“…Gender differences exist in mean-level symptom endorsements with boys exhibiting more ADHD symptoms than girls (Gaub & Carlson, 1997;Gershon, 2002;Polanczyk, de Lima, Horta, Biederman, & Rohde, 2007;Wiesner, Windle, Kanouse, Elliott, & Schuster, 2015). Gender-byage interactions have also been found, with ADHD prevalence appearing to decrease with age in male-dominant samples but increase in female-dominant samples (Simon et al, 2009).…”