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

Authors

Elsa Lucia Escalante-Barrios, Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, ColombiaFollow
Sonia Suarez Enciso, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Samuel P. Putnam, Bowdoin CollegeFollow
Helen Raikes, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Sergi Fàbregues, Universitat Oberta de CatalunyaFollow

ORCID IDs

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1141-7613

Date of this Version

2021

Citation

Citation: Escalante-Barrios, E.L.; Suarez-Enciso, S.M.; Putnam, S.P.; Raikes, H.; Fàbregues, S. 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. Children 2021,8,74. https://doi.org/10.3390/ children8020074

Comments

2021 by the authors.

Abstract

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.