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Factor structure and measurement invariance of the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire: a cross-cultural study among Thai and British adolescents

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Abstract

The Mood and Feelings Questionnaire—child self-report (MFQ-C) is a widely used measure of child and adolescent depression. This study evaluated possible factor solutions and examined the measurement invariance of the MFQ-C as a prerequisite for its use in cross-cultural comparisons between Thai (N = 1272) and British samples (N = 1817) by using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA). The latent means of Thai and British samples were also examined. A five-factor structure of the MFQ-C was confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis. A partial scalar invariant model was supported, and thus latent means were compared, with British adolescents reporting significantly higher mean MFQ-C scores than Thai adolescents on four of the five factors (Vegetative Symptoms, Suicidality, Cognitive Symptoms, Agitated Distress). There was no difference for the Core Symptoms factor. The findings also suggest that the MFQ-C is a valid measure to assess depression in Thai and British adolescents and maybe useful in cross-cultural comparisons of adolescent depression.

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Data availability

The datasets and other materials used during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

Nanthaka Supreeyaporn is funded by the Faculty of Education, Chiang Mai University, Thailand.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Foundations and Development, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand

    Nanthaka Supreeyaporn & Suntonrapot Damrongpanit

  2. Department of Experimental Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Rebecca Watson

  3. School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Sussex, UK

    Faith Orchard

  4. School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Shirley Reynolds & Paul E. Jenkins

  5. Centre of Multiculturalism and Education Policy, Multidisciplinary Research Institute, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand

    Nanthaka Supreeyaporn

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Contributions

NS, RW, FO, and PJ contributed to study design of the present study. NS and RW independently recruited participants and collected the MFQ in Thailand (NS) and in the (UK). NS analyzed the data, supervised by SD. NS wrote the manuscript with input from PJ, SD, FO, and SR. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nanthaka Supreeyaporn.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by University of Reading Research Ethics Committee, the UK (SREC 2018/105) and Chiang Mai University Research Ethic Committee, Thailand (CMUREC 61/073).

Consent for publication

All individual participants included in the study provided consent to publish their data to a journal.

Informed consent

In the UK, parental opt-out consent and participant opt-in assent was obtained for young people under 16, and participant opt-in consent was obtained for participants aged 16 and over. In Thailand, parental opt-out consent and participant opt-in assent were obtained from young people under 18 years of age based on standards prescribed by Chiang Mai University Research Ethic Committee.

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Supreeyaporn, N., Watson, R., Damrongpanit, S. et al. Factor structure and measurement invariance of the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire: a cross-cultural study among Thai and British adolescents. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-023-02268-8

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