Open AccessSuccessful validation of the CAT-MH Scales in a sample of Latin American migrants in the United States and Spain.
Author(s) -
Robert D. Gibbons,
Margarita Alegrı́a,
Li Cai,
Lizbeth Herrera,
Sheri Lapatin Markle,
Francisco Collazos,
Enrique BacaGarcía
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
psychological assessment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.96
H-Index - 140
eISSN - 1939-134X
pISSN - 1040-3590
DOI - 10.1037/pas0000569
Subject(s) - hypomania , psychology , mania , differential item functioning , psycinfo , anxiety , clinical psychology , psychometrics , depression (economics) , population , mental health , correlation , psychiatry , bipolar disorder , item response theory , demography , medline , mood , political science , law , geometry , mathematics , sociology , economics , macroeconomics
We examined cultural differences in the item characteristic functions of self-reported of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and mania-hypomania in a Latino population taking Computerized Adaptive Tests for Mental Health (CAT-MH) in Spanish versus a non-Latino sample taking the tests in English. We studied differential item functioning (DIF) of the most common adaptively administered symptom items out of a bank of 1,008 items between Latino (n = 1276) and non-Latino (n = 798) subjects. For depression, we identified 4 items with DIF that were good discriminators for non-Latinos but poor discriminators for Latinos. These items were related to cheerfulness, life satisfaction, concentration, and fatigue. The correlation between the original calibration and a Latino-only new calibration after eliminating these items was r = .990. For anxiety, no items with DIF were identified. The correlation between the original and new calibrations was r = .993. For mania-hypomania, we identified 4 items with differential item functioning that were good discriminators for non-Latinos but poor discriminators for Latinos. These items were related to risk-taking, self-assurance, and sexual activity. The correlation between the original and new calibration was r = .962. Once the identified items were removed, the correlation between the original calibration and a Latino-only calibration was r = .96 or greater. These findings reveal that the CAT-MH can be reliably used to measure depression, anxiety, and mania in Latinos taking these tests in Spanish. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).