The Validation of the Selective Mutism Questionnaire for Use in the Dutch Population

Abstract

Selective mutism (SM) is an anxiety disorder in children/adolescents, characterized by the absence of speaking in specific social situations, mostly at school. The selective mutism questionnaire (SMQ) is a parent report, internationally used to assess SM symptomatology and treatment outcomes. Since no assessment instrument for SM was available in the Netherlands, our aim was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Dutch translation of the SMQ, through reliability, confirmatory factor, and ROC analyses conducted on data obtained in 303 children (ages 3–17 years; clinical SM group n = 106, control group n = 197). The SMQ turned out to be highly reliable (α = 0.96 in the combined sample; 0.83 within the clinical group) and followed the expected factor structure. We conclude that the Dutch version of the SMQ is a reliable and valid tool both as a screening and clinical instrument to assess SM in Dutch speaking children.

Symptoms of Selective Mutism in Middle Childhood: Psychopathological and Temperament Correlates in Non-clinical and Clinically Referred 6- to 12-year-old Children

“…Further, stepwise linear regression analyses were conducted in which the predictors social anxiety (CASP) demonstrated that the SMQ has good internal consistency (with Cronbach's alphas in the 0.80 to 0.90 range) and scores correlate positively with a variety of concurrent measures, which provides support for the validity of the scale. Similar positive psychometric properties of the SMQ have been documented in other countries [31,32], including the Netherlands [33].…”

A systematic review and meta‐analysis of nonpharmacological interventions for children and adolescents with selective mutism

“…As suggested by Bergman et al (2008) themselves, there is a need for further research to establish whether the SMQ is suitable for adolescents or needs to be adapted. Rodrigues Pereira et al (2022) has started that process by including adolescents in their sample (3-17 years) when validating the Dutch translation. An alternative outcome measure has been developed that covers the age ranges of 3-18 years, the Frankfurt Scale of Selective Mutism (FSSM, Gensthaler et al, 2020) with promising psychometric properties in both a diagnostic scale (Cronbach's α = .90) and severity scale (Cronbach's α = .98).…”

“…There are many positives in using this measure. It is standardised and psychometrically sound (Cronbach's α = .97); widely used; adaptable, having been translated in Norwegian (Oerbeck et al., 2014 ), Italian (Esposito et al., 2017 ), Spanish (Olivares‐Olivares et al., 2021 ), Dutch (Rodrigues Pereira et al., 2022 ) and Japanese (Kakuta et al., 2022 ) and also into a teacher (School Speech Questionnaire, Bergman et al., 2002 ) and child reported measure (SMQ‐C, Milic et al., 2020 ). However, the SMQ's psychometric properties have only been validated for 3‐ to 11‐year‐olds limiting its use for the adolescent population.…”

Quiet children and adolescents: understanding and helping youth with selective mutism

“…When treating SM, the first steps are to make sure that the child's difficulty is, in fact, relevant to SM diagnosis, to estimate the intensity of the Mutism and to assess the triggering situations for the child. Therefore, standardised assessment measures have been developed such as the Selective Mutism Questionnaire (Rodrigues Pereira et al, 2022) and the Speech at School Questionnaire (Oerbeck et al, 2020) to evaluate symptoms of SM. They were conceived with the intention of giving a quantitative measure of the intensity of symptoms and their impact on the child's well-being.…”