Poster #206 - Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses of the How I Feel Scale in a Clinical Population

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

Introduction:
Emotionality and emotion regulation are important constructs in child psychology. Emotionality is the intensity, frequency, and duration of emotional arousal, and emotion regulation is the ability to control emotional reactions in socially acceptable ways (Cole, Martin, & Dennis, 2004; Eisenberg, Fabes, Guthrie & Reiser, 2000). Reliable and valid measurement of these constructs is critically important. The How I Feel Questionnaire (HIF; Walden, Harris, & Catron, 2003) is a self-report scale of emotionality and emotion regulation for children ages 8 to 12. Previous research, conducted within normative samples, identified three factors: Positive Emotion, Negative Emotion, and Emotion Control (Ciucci, Baroncelli, Grazzani, Ornaghi, & Caprin, 2016; Walden et al., 2003). The current study examined the factor structure of HIF for use in a clinical population.

Methods:
The sample consisted of 227 children (M = 9.48 years; 72.15% male) who were clients at a private practice for children with social and emotional difficulties. The majority of participants had at least one psychological diagnosis (71.35% ADHD, 33.71% anxiety disorder). Participants completed HIF before treatment. The factor structure of HIF was examined through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses.

Results:
Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed using principal components extraction, a criterion eigenvalue of 1.0, and promax rotation. Upon examination of the scree plot, it was determined that four factors should be retained, accounting for 26.32%, 16.48, 8.76%, and 4.64% of the variance. The first two factors were Positive Emotion and Emotion Control, the same as determined in normative samples. However, the third factor, Negative Emotion, was divided into two factors: Sad/Scared Emotion and Mad Emotion.

Next, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to validate the four-factor structure. The latent factors included were those determined through the EFA (Positive Emotion, Emotion Control, Sad/Scared Emotion, and Mad Emotion) as well as frequency and intensity of emotion. The 30 items on the questionnaire were divided into a set of 14 parcels based on the emotion assessed and whether the item examines emotional frequency or intensity Model fit was found to be relatively poor, 2 (57, N = 225) = 207.98, p < .001; RMSEA = .11, 90% CI [.09, .13]; CFI = .91.

Conclusion:
The factor structure of HIF, when administered to a population of children with clinical diagnoses, was found to differ from that established in a normative population (Ciucci et al., 2016; Walden et al., 2003). The EFA conducted in this study revealed a four-factor structure for HIF, rather than a three-factor model. While the Positive Emotion and Emotion Control subscales were identified in both, in the current study the Negative Emotion subscale was divided into Sad/Scared Emotion and Mad Emotion. However, CFA of the four-factor model reveals that data from the clinical population is a poor fit. This suggests that further exploration of the factor structure is needed. Results will have important implications for the accurate measurement of emotion regulation in children with psychological diagnoses.

Authors

• Natalie Ridgely, The Catholic University of America
  Presenting Author

• Sheina A. Godovich, The Catholic University of America
  Non-Presenting Author

• Guangyu Zeng, University of Miami
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mary K. Alvord, Alvord, Baker & Associates, LLC
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brendan Rich, The Catholic University of America
  Non-Presenting Author