Impact of children's language ability on self-report assessment of mental health: Testing measurement invariance using moderated non-linear factor analysis.

This study examined whether children's language ability affects how they answer mental health questionnaires. Researchers tested two common assessment tools with 342-349 children aged 10-11 in the UK, including 80-84 with language difficulties. They found that language ability influences how children respond to certain items on both questionnaires, but the impact on overall mental health scores differs between the two tools. The findings suggest that when using these tools with children who have language difficulties, researchers and clinicians need to be cautious about interpreting individual item responses and comparing results across children with different language abilities.

Key points

• Six items on the RCADS-25 anxiety/depression scale and three items on the SDQ-YR functioning scale showed different response patterns based on children's language ability
• For the RCADS-25, language-related differences did not affect overall anxiety and depression scores
• For the SDQ-YR, language-related differences affected peer problems and prosocial subscale scores, but not emotional problems, conduct problems, or hyperactivity scores
• Children with language difficulties are at elevated risk of mental health problems, yet commonly used assessment tools rely heavily on language comprehension
• RCADS-25 factor scores appear more robust for children with language difficulties than SDQ-YR scores

Limitations

This study only examined children aged 10-11 years in the UK, so findings may not generalise to younger children, older adolescents, or other countries. The research identifies which items function differently by language ability but does not propose solutions for making assessments more accessible for children with language difficulties.