Using the Very Short Form of the Children's Behavior Questionnaire for Spanish-Speaking Populations in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Psychometric Analysis of Dichotomized Variables

• Main Authors: Elsa Lucia Escalante-Barrios (Author), Sonia Mariel Suarez-Enciso (Author), Samuel P. Putnam (Author), Helen Raikes (Author), Sergi Fàbregues (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: MDPI AG, 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.

Summary

While the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Very Short Form of the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ-VSF) have been assessed in the US and Europe in samples composed of middle- and high-income parents with high levels of education, no studies have tested the instrument in low-income Spanish-speaking populations living in low- and middle-income countries. To fill this gap, our cross-sectional study assessed the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the CBQ-VSF version in a sample of 315 low-income and low-educated parents with preschool children living in the Caribbean Region of Colombia. While our findings revealed problems that were similar to those identified in previous assessments of the CBQ-VSF Spanish version, they also showed unique problems related to the sociodemographic characteristics of our sample, containing many individuals with a low income and low educational level. Most of the participants gave extreme responses, resulting in a notable kurtosis and skewness of the data. This article describes how we addressed these problems by dichotomizing the variables into binary categories. Additionally, it demonstrates that merely translating the CBQ-VSF is insufficient to be able to capture many of the underlying latent constructs associated with low-income and low-educated Latino/Hispanic populations.

Item Description

10.3390/children8020074
2227-9067