Masha Y Ivanova1, Thomas M Achenbach1, Leslie A Rescorla2, Lori V Turner1, Julie A Dumas1, Vera Almeida3,4, Meltem Anafarta-Sendag5, Ieva Bite6, Dorret I Boomsma7, J Carlos Caldas3,8, John W Capps9, Yi-Chuen Chen10, Paola Colombo11, Margareth da Silva Oliveira12, Anca Dobrean13, Nese Erol14, Alessandra Frigerio11, Yasuko Funabiki15, Reda Gedutienė16, Halldór S Guðmundsson17, Min Quan Heo18, Young Ah Kim19, Tih-Shih Lee18, Manuela Leite3, Jianghong Liu20, Jasminka Markovic21, Monika Misiec22, Marcus Müller23, Kyung Ja Oh24, Verónica Portillo-Reyes25, Wolfgang Retz23,26, Sandra B Sebre6, Shupeng Shi20, Sigurveig H Sigurðardóttir17, Roma Šimulionienė16, Elvisa Sokoli27, Tanja Tomasevic28, Jacqueline M Vink29, Ewa Zasępa22. 1. Department of Psychiatry, Larner College of Medicine, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA. 2. Department of Psychology, Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, PA, USA. 3. Instituto de Investigação e Formação Avançada em Ciências e Tecnologias da Saúde, CESPU, Gandra, Portugal. 4. UCIBIO/REQUIMTE, MedTec-Laboratório de Tecnologia Farmacêutica, Departamento de Ciências do Medicamento, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal. 5. Department of Psychology, Ufuk University, Ankara, Turkey. 6. Department of Psychology, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia. 7. Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 8. CINTESIS-Center for Health Technology and Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. 9. Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA. 10. Department of Psychology, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi County, Taiwan. 11. Child Psychopathology Unit, Scientific Institute Eugenio Medea, Bosisio Parini, Italy. 12. Faculty of Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil. 13. Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 14. Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey. 15. Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. 16. Department of Psychology, Klaipėda University, Klaipėda, Lithuania. 17. Faculty of Social Work, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland. 18. Neuroscience and Behavioural Disorders Programme, Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School, Singapore. 19. Huno Inc., Seoul, Republic of Korea. 20. Department of Family and Community Health, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia, PA, USA. 21. Private Practice, Novi Sad, Serbia. 22. Department of Psychology, Maria Grzegorzewska University, Warsaw, Poland. 23. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany. 24. Department of Psychology, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. 25. Departamento de Psicología, Universidad Autónoma de Cuidad Juárez, Cuidad Juárez, Mexico. 26. Institute for Forensic Psychology and Psychiatry, Saarland University Homburg/Saar, Homburg, Germany. 27. Department of Psychology, University of Tirana, Tirana, Albania. 28. Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia. 29. Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: As the world population ages, psychiatrists will increasingly need instruments for measuring constructs of psychopathology that are generalizable to diverse elders. The study tested whether syndromes of co-occurring problems derived from self-ratings of psychopathology by US elders would fit self-ratings by elders in 19 other societies. METHODS/ DESIGN: The Older Adult Self-Report (OASR) was completed by 12 826 adults who were 60 to 102 years old in 19 societies from North and South America, Asia, and Eastern, Northern, Southern, and Western Europe, plus the United States. Individual and multigroup confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) tested the fit of the seven-syndrome OASR model, consisting of the Anxious/Depressed, Worries, Somatic Complaints, Functional Impairment, Memory/Cognition Problems, Thought Problems, and Irritable/Disinhibited syndromes. RESULTS: In individual CFAs, the primary model fit index showed good fit for all societies, while the secondary model fit indices showed acceptable to good fit. The items loaded strongly on their respective factors, with a median item loading of .63 across 20 societies, and 98.7% of the loadings were statistically significant. In multigroup CFAs, 98% of items demonstrated approximate or full metric invariance. Fifteen percent of items demonstrated approximate or full scalar invariance, and another 59% demonstrated scalar invariance across more than half of societies. CONCLUSIONS: The findings supported the generalizability of OASR syndromes across societies. The seven syndromes offer empirically based clinical constructs that are relevant for elders of different backgrounds. They can be used to assess diverse elders and as a taxonomic framework to facilitate communication, services, research, and training in geriatric psychiatry.
OBJECTIVES: As the world population ages, psychiatrists will increasingly need instruments for measuring constructs of psychopathology that are generalizable to diverse elders. The study tested whether syndromes of co-occurring problems derived from self-ratings of psychopathology by US elders would fit self-ratings by elders in 19 other societies. METHODS/ DESIGN: The Older Adult Self-Report (OASR) was completed by 12 826 adults who were 60 to 102 years old in 19 societies from North and South America, Asia, and Eastern, Northern, Southern, and Western Europe, plus the United States. Individual and multigroup confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) tested the fit of the seven-syndrome OASR model, consisting of the Anxious/Depressed, Worries, Somatic Complaints, Functional Impairment, Memory/Cognition Problems, Thought Problems, and Irritable/Disinhibited syndromes. RESULTS: In individual CFAs, the primary model fit index showed good fit for all societies, while the secondary model fit indices showed acceptable to good fit. The items loaded strongly on their respective factors, with a median item loading of .63 across 20 societies, and 98.7% of the loadings were statistically significant. In multigroup CFAs, 98% of items demonstrated approximate or full metric invariance. Fifteen percent of items demonstrated approximate or full scalar invariance, and another 59% demonstrated scalar invariance across more than half of societies. CONCLUSIONS: The findings supported the generalizability of OASR syndromes across societies. The seven syndromes offer empirically based clinical constructs that are relevant for elders of different backgrounds. They can be used to assess diverse elders and as a taxonomic framework to facilitate communication, services, research, and training in geriatric psychiatry.