[Cross-cultural comparison of Conners Scales: Can the US-American factorial structure be replicated on German clinical sample?].
OBJECTIVE
International networks in child psychiatry research increasingly rely on the cross-cultural generalizability of commonly used questionnaire factor structures. The aim of this study is to analyze whether the U.S. factor structure of the Conners Parent Rating Scale (CPRS) can be replicated in a German clinical sample.


METHODS
A German child psychiatry sample of 1394 children children and adolescents was randomly splitted into halves. One sub-sample was used to calculate a German factor model by means of exploratory factor analysis. This model is tested in comparison with he U.S. model constructed according to Conners (1989) in the second sub-sample by means of a confirmatory factor analysis (LISREL 8).


RESULTS
87% of the path relations in the German and U.S.-American models are identical. Both models show limitations with regard to their predictive power. As expected, the goodness of fit indices for the German model are somewhat better than for the U.S. model (GFI = .81; AGFI = .75 versus GFI = .76; AGFI = .71).


CONCLUSIONS
The goodness of fit indices of the CPRS model are less satisfactory than those of other studies on the cross-cultural generalizability of factor structures of dimensional questionnaires (i.e., De Groot et al., 1994). However, this is mainly due to restrictions within the model (no multiple factor loadings). With respect to the cross-cultural generalizability differences were found in the impulsiveness/hyperactivity scale. All other scales could be well replicated.
Klinik für Psychiatrie, Psychosomatik und Psychotherapie des Kindes- und Jugendalters, Charité, Campus Virchow-Klinikum der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. michael.huss@charite.de
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D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002665:Child Psychiatry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D015588:Observer Variation; D010290:Parents; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012494:Sampling Studies; D014481:United States