Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2020-10
Psychometric Properties and Measurement Invariance Across Gender and Age-Group of the Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire–Children (PTQ-C) in Colombia
Recent research has found that repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is an important transdiagnostic process both in adult and child psychopathology. This finding has led some authors to design content-independent measures of RNT that can be administered across disorders. One of these instruments is the Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ) and its version for children (PTQ-C). This study presents the Spanish translation of the PTQ-C and its psychometric analysis in a sample of 1,127 Colombian children and adolescents (8-18 years old). All items obtained good discrimination indexes, and internal consistency was excellent (.93). A cross-validation study was conducted to analyze the factor structure of the PTQ-C, which strongly supported the one-factor structure. Measurement invariances across gender and age-group (8-12 and 13-18 years old) were also found. The PTQ-C scores for older boys were lower than for younger boys, whereas the inverse pattern was found for girls. The PTQ-C showed strong correlations with measures of pathological worry, emotional symptoms, and psychological inflexibility. In conclusion, the Spanish translation of the PTQ-C appears to be a valid and reliable measure of RNT.
AbelaJ. R. Z.AydinC. M.AuerbachR. P. (2007). Responses to depression in children: Reconceptualizing the relation among response styles. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35, 913-927.
2.
AbelaJ. R. Z.BrozinaK.HaighE. (2002). An examination of the response styles theory of depression in third and seventh grade children: A short term longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30, 515-527.
3.
AbelaJ. R. Z.VanderbiltE.RochonA. (2004). A test of the integration of the response styles and social support theories of depression in third and seventh grade children. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23, 653-674.
4.
BijttebierP.BastinM.NelisS.WeynS.LuyckxK.VaseyM. W.RaesF. (2018). Temperament, repetitive negative thinking, and depressive symptoms in early adolescence: A prospective study. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 40, 305-317.
5.
BijttebierP.RaesF.VaseyM. W.BastinM.EhringT. W. (2015). Assessment of repetitive negative thinking in children: The Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire–Child Version (PTQ-C). Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 37, 164-170.
6.
BorkovecT. D.RobinsonE.PruzinskyT.DePreeJ. A. (1983). Preliminary exploration of worry: Some characteristics and processes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 21, 9-16.
7.
BurwellR.ShirkS. (2007). Subtypes of rumination in adolescence: Associations between brooding, reflection, depressive symptoms, and coping. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 36, 56-65.
8.
ChenF. F. (2007). Sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 14, 464-504.
9.
CheungG. W.RensvoldR. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 9, 233-255.
10.
ChmielewskiM.SalaM.TangR.BaldwinA. (2016). Examining the construct validity of affective judgments of physical activity measures. Psychological Assessment, 28, 1128-1141.
11.
ChorpitaB. F.TraceyS. A.BrownT. A.CollicaT. J.BarlowD. H. (1997). Assessment of worry in children and adolescents: An adaptation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 569-581.
12.
CohenJ. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
13.
DazaP.NovyD. M.StanleyM.AverillP. (2002). The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale–21: Spanish translation and validation with a Hispanic sample. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 24, 195-205.
14.
Dereix-CalongeI.RuizF. J.SierraM. A.Peña-VargasA.RamírezE. S. (2019). Acceptance and commitment training focused on repetitive negative thinking for clinical psychology trainees: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 12, 81-88. doi:10.1016/j.jcbs.2019.02.005
15.
DevynckF.KornackaM.BaeyensC.SerraÉ.NevesJ. F. D.GaudratB.. . . SgardF. (2017). Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ): French validation of a transdiagnostic measure of repetitive negative thinking. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 2159.
16.
EhringT.BeharE. (in press). Transdiagnostic view on worrying and other negative mental content. In GerlachA. L.GlosterA. T. (Eds.), Generalized anxiety disorder and worrying: A comprehensive handbook for clinicians and researchers. Chichester, England: Wiley-Blackwell.
17.
EhringT.RaesF.WeidackerK.EmmelkampP. M. (2012). Validation of the Dutch version of the Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ-NL). European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 28, 102-108.
18.
EhringT.WatkinsE. R. (2008). Repetitive negative thinking as a transdiagnostic process. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 1, 192-205.
19.
EhringT.ZetscheU.WeidackerK.WahlK.SchönfeldS.EhlersA. (2011). The Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ): Validation of a content-independent measure of repetitive negative thinking. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 42, 225-232.
20.
FerrandoP. J.Lorenzo-SevaU. (2018). Assessing the quality and appropriateness of factor solutions and factor score estimates in exploratory item factor analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 78, 762-780.
21.
GrecoL. A.LambertW.BaerR. A. (2008). Psychological inflexibility in childhood and adolescence: Development and evaluation of the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth. Psychological Assessment, 20, 93-102.
22.
GreiffS.SchererR. (2018). Still comparing apples with oranges? Some thoughts on the principles and practices of measurement invariance testing. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 34, 141-144.
23.
GreydanusD. E.BasheP. (Eds.). (2003). Caring for your teenager. The complete and authoritative guide. New York, NY: Bantam Dell.
24.
HarveyA. G.WatkinsE.MansellW.ShafranR. (2004). Cognitive behavioural processes across psychological disorders. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
25.
HenkerB.WhalenC. K.O’NeilR. (1995). Worldly and workaday worries: Contemporary concerns of children and young adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 23, 685-702.
26.
HuL.BentlerP. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 1-55.
27.
JöreskogK. G. (2005). Structural equation modeling with ordinal variables using LISREL. Lincolnwood, IL. Scientific Software International.
28.
JöreskogK. G.OlssonU. H.WallentinF. Y. (2016). Multivariate analysis with LISREL. Basel, Switzerland: Springer.
KelleyK.PornprasertmanitS. (2016). Confidence intervals for population reliability coefficients: Evaluation of methods, recommendations, and software for composite measures. Psychological Methods, 21, 69-92.
32.
KlineR. B. (2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
33.
KornackaM.BucznyJ.LaytonR. L. (2016). Assessing repetitive negative thinking using categorical and transdiagnostic approaches: A comparison and validation of three Polish language adaptations of self-report questionnaires. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 322.
34.
Leen-FeldnerE. W.FeldnerM. T.TullM. T.RoemerL.ZvolenskyM. J. (2006). An examination of worry in relation to anxious responding to voluntary hyperventilation among adolescents. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 1803-1809.
35.
Lorenzo-SevaU.FerrandoP. J. (2006). FACTOR: A computer program to fit the exploratory factor analysis model. Behavioral Research Methods, 38, 88-91.
36.
Lorenzo-SevaU.TimmermanM. E.KiersH. A. L. (2011). The Hull method for selecting the number of common factors. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 46, 340-364.
37.
LovibondP. F.LovibondS. H. (1995). The structure of negative emotional states: Comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33, 335-343.
38.
McEvoyP. M.WatsonH.WatkinsE. R.NathanP. (2013). The relationship between worry, rumination, and comorbidity: Evidence for repetitive negative thinking as a transdiagnostic construct. Journal of Affective Disorders, 151, 313-320.
39.
MeyerT. J.MillerM. L.MetzgerR. L.BorkovecT. D. (1990). Development and validation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 28, 487-495.
MuñizJ.ElosuaP.HambletonR. K. (2013). International Test Commission Guidelines for test translation and adaptation. Psicothema, 25, 151-157.
42.
MurisP.RoelofsJ.MeestersC.BoomsmaP. (2004). Rumination and worry in nonclinical adolescents. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 28, 539-554.
43.
NewmanM. G.LleraS. J. (2011). A novel theory of experiential avoidance in generalized anxiety disorder: A review and synthesis of research supporting a contrast avoidance model of worry. Clinical Psychology Review, 31, 371-382.
44.
Nolen-HoeksemaS. (1998). The other end of the continuum: The costs of rumination. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 216-219.
45.
PapadakisA. A.PrinceR. A.JonesN. P.StraumanT. J. (2006). Self-regulation, rumination, and vulnerability to depression in adolescent girls. Development and Psychopathology, 18, 815-829.
46.
PăsăreluC. R.DobreanA.BalazsiR.PredescuE.ŞiposR.LupuV. (2016). The Penn State Worry Questionnaire for children: Age, gender and clinical invariance. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 48, 359-369.
47.
PerrinS.LastC. (1997). Worrisome thoughts in children clinically referred for anxiety disorder. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 26, 181-189.
48.
PestleS. L.ChorpitaB. F.SchiffmanJ. (2008). Psychometric properties of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire for children in a large clinical sample. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 37, 465-471.
49.
RaesF. (2012). Repetitive negative thinking predicts depressed mood at 3-year follow-up in students. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 34, 497-501.
50.
RuizF. J. (2014). Psychological inflexibility mediates the effects of self-efficacy and anxiety sensitivity on worry. Spanish Journal of Psychology, 17, E3.
51.
RuizF. J.FlórezC. L.García-MartínM. B.Monroy-CifuentesA.Barreto-MonteroK.García-BeltránD. M.. . . Gil-LucianoB. (2018). A multiple-baseline evaluation of a brief acceptance and commitment therapy protocol focused on repetitive negative thinking for moderate emotional disorders. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 9, 1-14.
52.
RuizF. J.García-MartínM. B.Suárez-FalcónJ. C.Odriozola-GonzálezP. (2017). The hierarchical factor structure of the Spanish version of Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy, 17, 97-105.
53.
RuizF. J.Monroy-CifuentesA.Suárez-FalcónJ. C. (2018). Penn State Worry Questionnaire-11 validity in Colombia and factorial equivalence across gender and nonclinical and clinical samples. Anales de Psicología, 34, 451-457.
54.
SalazarD. M.RuizF. J.Suárez-FalcónJ. C.Barreto-ZambranoM. L.Gómez-BarretoM. P.FlórezC. L. (2019). Psychometric properties of the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire–Youth in Colombia. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 12, 305-313. doi:10.1016/j.jcbs.2018.11.008
55.
SamtaniS.MouldsM. L. (2017). Assessing maladaptive repetitive thought in clinical disorders: a critical review of existing measures. Clinical Psychology Review, 53, 14-28.
56.
SandínB.ChorotP.ValienteR. M.LostaoL. (2009). Validación española del cuestionario de preocupación PSWQ: Estructura factorial y propiedades psicométricas [Spanish validation of the PSWQ Worry Questionnaire: Facture structure and psychometric properties]. Revista de Psicopatología y Psicología Clínica, 14, 107-122.
57.
SchwartzJ. A. J.KoenigL. J. (1996). Response styles and negative affect among adolescents. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 20, 13-36.
58.
SilvermanW. K.LaGrecaA. M.WassersteinS. (1995). What do children worry about? Worries and their relation to anxiety. Child Development, 66, 671-686.
59.
SpinhovenP.van HemertA. M.PenninxB. W. (2018). Repetitive negative thinking as a predictor of depression and anxiety: A longitudinal cohort study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 241, 216-225.
60.
SpinhovenP.van HemertA. M.PenninxB. W. (2019). Repetitive negative thinking as a mediator in prospective cross-disorder associations between anxiety and depression disorders and their symptoms. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 63, 6-11.
61.
SzabóM. (2010). The short version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21): Factor structure in a young adolescent sample. Journal of Adolescence, 33, 1-8.
62.
SzabóM.LovibondP. F. (2006). Anxiety, depression, and tension/stress in children. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 28, 192-202.
63.
TimmermanM. E.Lorenzo-SevaU. (2011). Dimensionality assessment of ordered polytomous items with parallel analysis. Psychological Methods, 16, 209-220.
64.
TreynorW.GonzalezR.Nolen-HoeksemaS. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: A psychometric analysis. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27, 247-259.
65.
ViladrichC.Angulo-BrunetA.DovalE. (2017). A journey around alpha and omega to estimate internal consistency reliability. Anales de Psicología, 33, 755-782.
66.
WeemsC.SilvermanW.La GrecaA. (2000). What do youth referred for anxiety problems worry about? Worry and its relation to anxiety and anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 28, 63-72.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
