Assessing the Use of Multiple Indicators–Multiple Causes (MIMIC) Modeling to Identify Demographic Factors That Impact Children's Behavioral Problems

• In Event: 25.037 - Perspectives on Early Childhood Assessment

Abstract

The Pediatric Symptom Checklist-17 (PSC-17) is a screener designed to measure children’s behavioral and emotional problems. This study investigates the latent structure underlying the PSC-17 by examining the latent variable differences due to demographic characteristics of children being rated. A sample of teacher ratings of 1147 children from pre-kindergarten to grade two was used. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that the PSC-17 is composed of three subscales: external problems (6 items), internal problems (5 items) and attentions (7 items) with only one cross-loading item. A multiple indicator–multiple causes (MIMIC) model results showed that gender, grade level, ethnicity and lunch status are related with the latent variables underlying PSC-17 in different ways.
Keywords: PSC-17 Latent Structure, Demographic characteristic, Behavioral problems

Authors

• Ruiqin Gao, University of South Carolina - Columbia

• Christine DiStefano, University of South Carolina

• Jin Liu, University of South Carolina - Columbia

• Ning Jiang, University of South Carolina - Columbia