Factor structure and invariance across gender of the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment protective factor scale.

Abstract

Michigan State UniversityEarly childhood social–emotional assessment has traditionally focused on risk factorsor psychopathology, and has less frequently examined protective factors that may serveto promote positive developmental outcomes for children. To advance conceptualmodels that include protective factors as key explanatory constructs, there is a need forquantitative measures of protective factors that are psychometrically sound and func-tion similarly across different subgroups, including gender. This study examined thefactor structure and factorial invariance across gender of the Devereux Early ChildhoodAssessment (DECA), one of the few measures to focus on protective behaviors. A totalof 1,344 parents completed the DECA for a group of developmentally and economi-cally at-risk children ages 2 to 5 years. Results of the con rmatory factor analysis, the rst to be conducted on the DECA, revealed that the factor structure proposed by theauthors of the DECA was adequate with some modi cations. Multigroup comparisonsby gender supported the invariance of the factor pattern coef cients and 26 of the 27item intercepts, indicating that the items were functioning similarly across boys andgirls. Suggestions for improving problematic item pairs and content are provided. Thisstudy can be viewed as part of the ongoing validation of the DECA and an importantcontribution to the strength-based assessment literature.Keywords: