(PS3-A15) Measurement Invariance Across Child and Caregiver Genders with the Psychosocial Strengths Inventory for Children and Adolescents–short Form (PSICA-SF)

Psychosocial competencies are key components of a child’s socio-behavioral repertoire relating to communication and regulation across affect, attention, and behavior (Briegel et al., 2018). Although related to problem behavior, these competencies uniquely predict positive and negative developmental trajectories (Masten & Cichetti; 2010); however, few extant measures allow for feasible, empirically validated assessment of these core competencies across early and middle childhood. Designed to address this gap, the Psychosocial Strengths Inventory for Children and Adolescents, Short-Form (PSICA-SF; Hynes et al., 2023) is a free, 9-item caregiver-report measure of multiple psychosocial competencies related to compliance, prosociality, and attention regulation in youth ages 2–16. Prior research supports the PSICA-SF’s 3- factor structure and subscales (i.e., Prosociality, Compliance, Attention), internal consistency (total α = .88; subscales αs = .80–.85) and its face, convergent, and criterion validity (Hynes et al., 2023), especially versus the original 36-item PSICA (Niec et al., 2017; see Briegel et al., 2018; Korell & Peer, 2023; Todd & Niec, 2022). Yet, no study with either the PSICA-SF (or PSICA) has yet examined whether it has sufficient measurement invariance across caregiver and child genders. Perceptions of child behavior often differ across caregiver gender (Briegel et al., 2019; Truetler & Epkins, 2003), just as girls tend to be rated higher in competence than boys (Briegel et al., 2019; Chaplin & Aldao). Given these findings as well as recent guidelines that assessments include multiple parents (Alakortes et al., 2017), this study assessed the PSICA-SF’s invariance across caregiver and child gender using a a nationally representative, online-recruited sample of 865 caregivers (56.2% biological mothers, 39.0% biological fathers) completed the PSICA-SF on one of their children aged 2–10 (54.7% boys; age M = 5.4, SD = 2.6; 71.9% White, 12.8% Black, 5.6% Asian, 8.2% multiracial, 0.8% Native American; 26.1% had clinical levels of externalizing and/or internalizing problems). Notably, CFA results confirmed the PSICA-SF’s 3-factor structure across all studied child and caregiver genders, with results indicating sufficient model fit for mothers (CFI = .991, RMSEA = .041, SRMR = .027), fathers (CFI = .967, RMSEA = .072, SRMR= .045), boys (CFI = .984, RMSEA = .053, SRMR = .031) and girls (CFI = .989, RMSEA = .044, SRMR = .027), indicating configural invariance. Multiple-group CFA results further indicated sufficient metric and scalar invariance across caregiver and child genders, per Chen’s (2007) standards. However, in line with extant literature, girls, on average, were rated as having significantly higher prosociality (d = .28 p < .001) and overall competence than boys were, though only to a small to trivial degree, respectively(d = .18, p = .01). These results are important first-steps in establishing appropriate clinical cut-offs for children and respondents respectively.