The present study examined the factor structure and measurement invariance of the Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Approach System (BIS/BAS) scales parent-report in children and adolescents (N = 1,444, 58% girls) across age (Group 1, 2-5 years; Group 2, 6-9 years; Group 3, 10-13 years; Group 4, 14-18 years old) and gender. The results consistently underscored a four-factor structure, resembling the original factor structure, with one BIS-factor and three BAS-factors. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis showed full measurement invariance across gender as well as across Group 1 and 2, and Group 2 and 3. Strong measurement invariance was found across Group 3 and 4, Group 1 and 3, and Group 2 and 4. Configural and metric invariance was found across Group 1 and 4. Hence, mean-level BIS/BAS scores can be compared across gender and age although comparison between preschool children (Group 1) and late secondary school children (Group 4) should be done with caution.
AllemandM.ZimprichD.MartinM. (2008). Long-term correlated change in personality traits in old age. Psychology and Aging, 23, 545-557. doi:10.1037/a0013239
2.
BeckI.SmitsD. J. M.ClaesL.VandereyckenW.BijttebierP. (2009). Psychometric evaluation of the behavioral inhibition/behavioral activation system scales and the sensitivity to punishment and sensitivity to reward questionnaire in a sample of eating disordered patients. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 407-412. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2009.04.007
3.
BijttebierP.BeckI.ClaesL.VandereyckenW. (2009). Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity theory as a framework for research on personality-psychopathology associations. Clinical Psychology Review, 29, 421-430.
4.
BjornebekkG. (2009). Psychometric Properties of the Scores on the Behavioral Inhibition and Activation Scales in a sample of Norwegian children. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 69, 636-654. doi:10.1177/0013164408323239
5.
BlairC. (2003). Behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation in young children: Relations with self-regulation and adaptation to preschool in children attending head start. Developmental Psychobiology, 42, 301-311. doi:10.1002/dev.10103
6.
BlairC.PetersR.GrangerD. (2004). Physiological and neuropsychological correlates of approach/withdrawal tendencies in preschool: Further examination of the Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System scales for young children. Developmental Psychobiology, 45, 113-124. doi:10.1002/dev.20022
7.
BollenK. A. (Ed.). (1989). Structural equation modeling with latent variables. New York, NY: Wiley.
8.
BraamsB. R.van DuijvenvoordeA. C. K.PeperJ. S.CroneE. A. (2015). Longitudinal changes in adolescent risk-taking: A comprehensive study of neural responses to rewards, pubertal development, and risk-taking behavior. Journal of Neuroscience, 35, 7226-7238. doi:10.1523/jneurosci.4764-14.2015
9.
BrowneM. W. (2001). An overview of analytic rotation in exploratory factor analysis. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 36, 111-150. doi:10.1207/s15327906mbr3601_05
10.
CarverC. S.WhiteT. L. (1994). Behavioral inhibition, behavioral activation, and affective responses to impending reward and punishment. The BIS/BAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 319-333. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.67.2.319
11.
CauffmanE.ShulmanE. P.SteinbergL.ClausE.BanichM. T.GrahamS.WoolardJ. (2010). Age differences in affective decision making as indexed by performance on the Iowa gambling task. Developmental Psychology, 46, 193-207. doi:10.1037/a0016128
12.
ChenF. (2007). Sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 14, 464-504.
13.
ChenF.CurranP. J.BollenK. A.KirbyJ.PaxtonP. (2008). An empirical evaluation of the use of fixed cutoff points in RMSEA test statistic in structural equation models. Sociological Methods & Research, 36, 462-494. doi:10.1177/0049124108314720
14.
CheungG. W.RensvoldR. B. (1999). Testing factorial invariance across groups: A reconceptualization and proposed new method. Journal of Management, 25, 1-27. doi:10.1177/014920639902500101
15.
CheungG. W.RensvoldR. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9, 233-255. doi:10.1207/s15328007sem0902_5
16.
CooperA.GomezR.AucoteH. (2007). The Behavioural Inhibition System and Behavioural Approach System (BIS/BAS) Scales: Measurement and structural invariance across adults and adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 295-305. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2006.11.023
17.
CoplanR. J.WilsonJ.FrohlickS. L.ZelenskiJ. (2006). A person-oriented analysis of behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation in children. Personality and Individual Differences, 41, 917-927. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2006.02.019
18.
CorrP. J. (2001). Testing problems in J. A. Gray’s personality theory: A commentary on Matthews and Gilliland (1999). Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 333-352. doi:10.1016/s0191-8869(00)00028-3
19.
CorrP. J. (2002). J. A. Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity theory: Tests of the joint subsystems hypothesis of anxiety and impulsivity. Personality and Individual Differences, 33, 511-532. doi:10.1016/s0191-8869(01)00170-2
20.
CorrP. J. (2016). Reinforcement sensitivity theory of personality questionnaires: Structural survey with recommendations. Personality and Individual Differences, 89, 60-64. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.09.045
21.
de CockN.van LippeveldeW.GoossensL.De ClercqB.VangeelJ.LachatC.. . . Van CampJ. (2016). Sensitivity to reward and adolescents’ unhealthy snacking and drinking behavior: The role of hedonic eating styles and availability. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 13(1). doi:10.1186/s12966-016-0341-6
22.
De DeckerA.VerbekenS.SioenI.MichelsN.VervoortL.BraetC.De HenauwS. (2017). BIS/BAS Scale in primary school children: Parent-child agreement and longitudinal stability. Behaviour Change, 34, 98-116. doi:10.1017/bec.2017.8
23.
De DeckerA.VerbekenS.SioenI.MoensE.BraetC.De HenauwS. (2017). Fat tissue accretion in children and adolescents: Interplay between food responsiveness, gender, and the home availability of snacks. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 8. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.02041
24.
ErnstM.PineD. S.HardinM. (2009). Triadic model of the neurobiology of motivated behavior in adolescence. Psychiatrie Sciences Humaines Neurosciences, 7(3-4), 127-139. doi:10.1007/s11836-009-0094-2
25.
FignerB.MackinlayR. J.WilkeningF.WeberE. U. (2009). Affective and deliberative processes in risky choice: Age differences in risk taking in the Columbia card task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 35, 709-730. doi:10.1037/a0014983
26.
FrankenI. H. A.MurisP.RassinE. (2005). Psychometric properties of the Dutch BIS/BAS Scales. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 27(1), 25-30. doi:10.1007/s10862-005-3262-2
27.
GalvanA. (2013). The teenage brain: Sensitivity to rewards. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(2), 88-93. doi:10.1177/0963721413480859
28.
GrayJ. A. (1982). The neuropsychology of anxiety: An enquiry into the functions of the septo-hippocampal system. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
29.
GrayJ. A. (1987). The psychology of fear and stress (2nd ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
30.
GrayJ. D.HannaD.GillenA.RusheT. (2016). A closer look at Carver and White’s BIS/SAS scales: Factor analysis and age group differences. Personality and Individual Differences, 95, 20-24. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.02.022
31.
GuyerA. E.McClure-ToneE. B.ShiffrinN. D.PineD. S.NelsonE. E. (2009). Probing the neural correlates of anticipated peer evaluation in adolescence. Child Development, 80, 1000-1015.
32.
HarnettP.LoxtonN. J.JacksonC. J. (2013). Revised reinforcement sensitivity theory: Implications for psychopathology and psychological health. Personality and Individual Differences, 54, 432-437.
33.
HeymN.FergusonE.LawrenceC. (2008). An evaluation of the relationship between Gray’s revised RST and Eysenck’s PEN: Distinguishing BIS and FFFS in Carver and White’s BIS/BAS scales. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 709-715. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2008.07.013
34.
HeymN.KantiniE.CheckleyH. L. R.CassadayH. J. (2015). Gray’s revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory in relation to attention-deficit/hyperactivity and Tourette-like behaviors in the general population. Personality and Individual Differences, 78, 24-28. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.01.012
35.
HolmbeckG. N.LiS. T.SchurmanJ. V.FriedmanD.CoakleyR. M. (2002). Collecting and managing multisource and multimethod data in studies of pediatric populations. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 27, 5-18. doi:10.1093/jpepsy/27.1.5
36.
HuL.BentlerP. M. (1999). Evaluation model fit. In HoyleR. H. (Ed.), Structural equation modeling concepts issues and applications (pp. 76-99). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
37.
HyunG. J.HanD. H.LeeY. S.KangK. D.YooS. K.ChungU. S.RenshawP. F. (2015). Risk factors associated with online game addiction: A hierarchical model. Computers in Human Behavior, 48, 706-713. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.008
38.
KaiserH. F. (1960). The application of electronic computers to factor analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 141-151. doi:10.1177/001316446002000116
39.
KimbrelN. A.Nelson-GrayR. O.MitchellJ. T. (2007). Reinforcement sensitivity and maternal style as predictors of psychopathology. Personality and Individual Differences, 42, 1139-1149. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2006.06.028
40.
KingsburyA.CoplanR. J.WeeksM.Rose-KrasnorL. (2013). Covering all the BAS’s: A closer look at the links between BIS, BAS, and socio-emotional functioning in childhood. Personality and Individual Differences, 55, 521-526.
41.
KlimstraT. A.SijtsemaJ. J.HenrichsJ.CimaM. (2014). The dark triad of personality in adolescence: Psychometric properties of a concise measure and associations with adolescent adjustment from a multi-informant perspective. Journal of Research in Personality, 53, 84-92. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2014.09.001
42.
KlineR. B. (2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
43.
KnyazevG. G.SlobodskayaH. R.WilsonG. D. (2004). Comparison of the construct validity of the Gray-Wilson Personality Questionnaire and the BIS/BAS scales. Personality and Individual Differences, 37, 1565-1582. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2004.02.013
44.
KrupicD.CorrP. J.RucevicS.KrizanicV.GracaninA. (2016). Five reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) of personality questionnaires: Comparison, validity and generalization. Personality and Individual Differences, 97, 19-24. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.012
45.
LemeryK. S.EssexM. J.SmiderN. A. (2002). Revealing the relation between temperament and behavior problem symptoms by eliminating measurement confounding: Expert ratings and factor analyses. Child Development, 73, 867-882. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00444
46.
LittleR. (1988). A test of missing completely at random for multivariate data with missing values. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 83, 1198-1202. doi:10.2307/2290157
47.
LittleT. D. (2013). Longitudinal structural equation modeling. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
48.
MartelM. M. (2013a). Individual differences in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms and associated executive dysfunction and traits: Sex, ethnicity, and family income. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 83, 165-175. doi:10.1111/ajop.12034
49.
MartelM. M. (2013b). Sexual selection and sex differences in the prevalence of childhood externalizing and adolescent internalizing disorders. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 1221-1259. doi:10.1037/a0032247
50.
MartelM. M.LevinsonC. A.LeeC. A.SmithT. E. (2017). Impulsivity symptoms as core to the developmental externalizing spectrum. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 45, 83-90. doi:10.1007/s10802-016-0148-6
51.
MartelM. M.von EyeA.NiggJ. (2012). Developmental differences in structure of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) between childhood and adulthood. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 36, 279-292. doi:10.1177/0165025412444077
52.
MattonA.GoossensL.BraetC.VervaetM. (2013). Punishment and reward sensitivity: Are naturally occurring clusters in these traits related to eating and weight problems in adolescents?European Eating Disorders Review, 21, 184-194. doi:10.1002/erv.2226
53.
MeredithW.TeresiJ. A. (2006). An essay on measurement and factorial invariance. Medical Care, 44(11 Suppl. 3), S69-S77. doi:10.1097/01.mlr.0000245438.73837.89
54.
MoreanM. E.DeMartiniK. S.LeemanR. F.PearlsonG. D.AnticevicA.Krishnan-SarinS.. . . O’MalleyS. S. (2014). Psychometrically improved, abbreviated versions of three classic measures of impulsivity and self-control. Psychological Assessment, 26, 1003-1020. doi:10.1037/pas0000003
55.
MoreiraD.AlmeidaF.PintoM.SegarraP.BarbosaF. (2015). Data concerning the psychometric properties of the Behavioral Inhibition/Behavioral Activation Scales for the Portuguese population. Psychological Assessment, 27, 1117-1122. doi:10.1037/pas0000108
56.
MullerJ. M.WytykowskaA. M. (2005). Psychometric properties and validation of a Polish adaptation of Carver and White’s BIS/BAS scales. Personality and Individual Differences, 39, 795-805. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.03.006
57.
MurisP.MeestersC.De KanterE.TimmermanE. (2005). Behavioural inhibition and behavioural activation system scales for children: Relationships with Eysenck’s personality traits and psychopathological symptoms. Personality and Individual Differences, 38, 103-113.
NiggJ. T. (2006). Temperament and developmental psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 395-422. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01612.x
60.
O’ConnorB. P. (2000). SPSS and SAS programs for determining the number of components using parallel analysis and Velicer’s MAP test. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 32, 396-402. doi:10.3758/bf03200807
61.
OlinoT. M.DurbinC. E.KleinD. N.HaydenE. P.DysonM. W. (2013). Gender differences in young children’s temperament traits: Comparisons across observational and parent-report methods. Journal of Personality, 81, 119-129. doi:10.1111/jopy.12000
62.
PoythressN. G.SkeemJ. L.WeirJ.LilienfeldS. O.DouglasK. S.EdensJ. F.KennealyP. J. (2008). Psychometric properties of Carver and White’s (1994) BIS/BAS scales in a large sample of offenders. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 732-737. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2008.07.021
63.
QuayH. C. (1988). Attention deficit disorder and the behavioral inhibition system: The relevance of the neuropsychological theory of Jeffrey A. Gray. In BloomingdaleL. M.SergeantJ. A. (Eds.), Attention deficit disorder: Criteria, cognition, interventions (pp. 117-125). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
64.
RothbartM. K.AhadiS. A. (1994). Temperament and the development of personality. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 55-66. doi:10.1037/0021-843x.103.1.55
65.
SatorraA.BentlerP. M. (2001). A scaled difference chi-square test statistic for moment structure analysis. Psychometrika, 66, 507-514. doi:10.1007/bf02296192
TannerA. K.HaskingP.MartinG. (2015). Non-suicidal self-injury and firesetting: Shared and unique correlates among school-based adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44, 964-978. doi:10.1007/s10964-014-0119-6
68.
UrosevicS.CollinsP.MuetzelR.LimK.LucianaM. (2012). Longitudinal changes in behavioral approach system sensitivity and brain structures involved in reward processing during adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 48, 1488-1500. doi:10.1037/a0027502
69.
van de SchootR.LugtigP.HoxJ. (2012). A checklist for testing measurement invariance. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9, 486-492. doi:10.1080/17405629.2012.686740
70.
VandenbergR. J.LanceC. E. (2000). A review and synthesis of the measurement invariance literature: Suggestions, practices, and recommendations for organizational research. Organizational Research Methods, 3, 4-70. doi:10.1177/109442810031002
71.
VandewegheL.MattonA.BeyersW.VervaetM.BraetC.GoossensL. (2016). Psychometric properties of the BIS/BAS-Scales and the SPSRQ in flemish adolescents. Psychologica Belgica, 56, 406-420. doi:10.5334/pb.298
72.
VandewegheL.VervoortL.JonkerN.NaetsT. (2017). Reinforcement sensitivity: Assessment of punishment and reward sensitivity in children and adolescents: Questionnaires and performance based measures. Manuscript in preparation.
73.
VangeelJ.BeullensK.VervoortL.De CockN.Van LippeveldeW.GoossensL.EggermontS. (2017). The role behavioral of activation and inhibition in explaining adolescents’ game use and game engagement levels. Media Psychology, 20, 116-143. doi:10.1080/15213269.2016.1142378
74.
VerbekenS.BraetC.LammertynJ.GoossensL.MoensE. (2012). How is reward sensitivity related to bodyweight in children?Appetite, 58, 478-483. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2011.11.018
75.
VervoortL. (2010). The behavioral inhibition system in childhood and adolescent anxiety: An analysis from the information processing perspective (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
76.
VervoortL.VandewegheL.VandewalleJ.Van DurmeK.VandevivereE.WanteL.. . . BraetC. (2015). Measuring punishment and reward sensitivity in children and adolescents with a parent-report version of the BIS/BAS-scales. Personality and Individual Differences, 87, 272-277. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.08.024
77.
VervoortL.WoltersL. H.HogendoornS. M.de HaanE.BoerF.PrinsP. J. M. (2010). Sensitivity of Gray’s behavioral inhibition system in clinically anxious and non-anxious children and adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences, 48, 629-633. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2009.12.021
78.
YuR.BranjeS. J. T.KeijsersL.MeeusW. H. J. (2011). Psychometric characteristics of Carver and White’s BIS/BAS Scales in Dutch adolescents and their mothers. Journal of Personality Assessment, 93, 500-507. doi:10.1080/00223891.2011.595745
79.
YuanK. H.BentlerP. M. (2000). Three likelihood-based methods for mean and covariance structure analysis with nonnormal missing data. In SobelM. E.BeckerM. P. (Eds.), Sociological methodology 2000 (Vol. 30, pp. 165-200). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
80.
ZwickW. R.VelicerW. F. (1986). Comparison of 5 rules for determining the number of components to retain. Psychological Bulletin, 99, 432-442. doi:10.1037//0033-2909.99.3.432
