title: Cross-cultural invariance of the factor structure of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire across Spanish and American college students.
abstract: The main goal of this study was to examine the cross-cultural invariance of the factor structure of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) (Raine, 1991) in two large samples of Spanish and American young adults. The final sample was made up of 2313 college students (508 men, 22%). Their mean age was 20.5 years (S.D.=3.2). The results indicated that the Stefanis et al. (2004) four-factor model yielded the best goodness-of-fit indices compared to alternative models. Moreover, the results support configural, metric, and partial measurement invariance of the covariances of the SPQ across the two samples. The finding of measurement equivalence across cultures provides essential evidence of construct validity for the schizotypy dimensions and of the cross-cultural validity of SPQ scores. The finding of comparable dimensional structures in cross-cultural samples lends further support to the continuum model of schizotypy and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Future studies should continue to examine the validity of scores on the SPQ and other schizotypy measures and their variation or consistency across cultures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Sciences, University of La Rioja, Spain; Center for Biomedical Research in the Mental Health Network (CIBERSAM), Spain. Electronic address: eduardo.fonseca.pedrero@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fonseca-Pedrero
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Michael T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Compton
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Erin B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Tone
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Sciences, University of La Rioja, Spain.
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ortuño-Sierra
authors.affiliation: Center for Biomedical Research in the Mental Health Network (CIBERSAM), Spain; Department of Psychology, University of Oviedo, Spain.
authors.forename: Mercedes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Paino
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of La Laguna, Spain.
authors.forename: Ascensión
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fumero
authors.affiliation: Center for Biomedical Research in the Mental Health Network (CIBERSAM), Spain; Department of Psychology, University of Oviedo, Spain.
authors.forename: Serafín
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lemos-Giráldez
keywords: Cross-cultural; Measurement invariance; Schizotypal; Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire; Schizotypy