title: Person misfit on the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology: Low quality self-report or true atypical symptom profile?
abstract: Person misfit on a self-report measure refers to a response pattern that is unlikely given a theoretical measurement model. Person misfit may reflect low quality self-report data, for example due to random responding or misunderstanding of items. However, recent research in the context of psychopathology suggests that person misfit may reflect atypical symptom profiles that have implications for diagnosis or treatment. We followed-up on Wanders et al. (Journal of Affective Disorders, 180, 36-43, 2015) who investigated person misfit on the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS) in the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (n = 2,981). Our goal was to investigate the extent to which misfit on the IDS reflects low-quality self-report patterns and the extent to which it reflects true atypical symptom profiles. Regression analysis showed that person misfit related more strongly to self-report quality indicators than to variables quantifying theoretically-derived atypical symptom profiles. A data-driven atypical symptom profile explained most variance in person misfit, suggesting that person misfit on the IDS mainly reflects a sample- and questionnaire-specific atypical symptom profile. We concluded that person-fit statistics are useful for detecting IDS scores that may not be valid. Further research is necessary to support the interpretation of person misfit as reflecting a meaningful atypical symptom combination.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Judith M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Conijn
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.|Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Spinhoven
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Psychometrics and Statistics, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Rob R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Meijer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center/GGZ inGeest, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Femke
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lamers
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report / Q000592:standards*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: atypical depression symptoms; careless and random responding; item response theory; person-fit analysis