title: Assessing the construct validity of the Chinese-Version Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief on male and female undergraduate students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Screening for the schizotypal personality trait is one strategy to identify people who may be susceptible to early psychosis or be at high risk for prodromal psychosis. The Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief (SPQ-B) has been widely used to assess the schizotypal personality and has been translated into Chinese. However, the psychometric properties of the Chinese-version scale have yet to be evaluated.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study evaluates the construct validity of the Chinese-version SPQ-B on a sample of male and female undergraduate students in Taiwan.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional design with convenient sampling was used for this study. The data were collected using the Chinese-version SPQ-B between October 2008 and June 2009. Participants included 513 male and 675 female undergraduate students in Taiwan. The factor construct validity of the scale was examined by confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modeling with SPSS AMOS version 17 software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results show that the three-factor model fits the data better than the one-factor model for both male and female participants. The male participants scored significantly higher than their female counterparts in terms of total scale, interpersonal subscales, and disorganized subscales.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Chinese version of the SPQ-B adequately achieves three-factor construct validity for undergraduate students. The scale may be used to screen for the schizotypal personality trait in both male and female college students to identify those at an elevated risk for mental illness.
authors.affiliation: 1PhD, RN, Associate Professor, School of Nursing, China Medical University, and Adjunct Supervisor, Department of Nursing, China Medical University Hospital, Taiwan, ROC 2PhD, MD, Professor, Institute of Clinical Medical Science, China Medical University, and Chief, Department of Psychiatry, China Medical University Hospital, Taiwan, ROC 3PhD, RN, Professor, School of Nursing, National Defense Medical Center, Taiwan, ROC 4MD, Department of Psychiatry, China Medical University Hospital, Taiwan, ROC 5MD, Department of Psychiatry, Kuang Tien General Hospital, Taiwan, ROC 6PhD, MD, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, Torrance, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Wei-Fen
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Hsien-Yuan
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Lane
authors.forename: Li-Chi
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.forename: Po-Lun
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Shu-Ju
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Guochuan E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Tsai
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012569:Schizotypal Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan; D014175:Translating; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult