Measurement invariance and preliminary psychometric properties of the young positive schema questionnaire in a Portuguese European sample

Abstract

Early Adaptive Schemas have been proposed as adaptive counterparts to Early Maladaptive Schemas, which are longstanding dysfunctional psychological structures associated with psychopathology. The Young Positive Schema Questionnaire (YPSQ) was recently developed to complement the Young Schema Questionnaire 3 Short-Form. This study describes the cultural adaptation of YPSQ to European Portuguese. A sample of European Portuguese-speaking participants (N = 430, Mage = 30.31, DP = 12.75), fulfilled self-report questionnaires in a cross-sectional/transversal design. Confirmatory Factor Analysis, multi-group confirmatory group analysis and Pearson correlations were used to explore the psychometric properties of the YPSQ. A 14-factorial model was identified with 56 items with excellent goodness-of-fit indices χ2(426) = 3252.165, TLI = 0.92, CFI = 0.93, RMSEA = 0.056[0.053 − 0.058]. Almost all the positive schemas correlated negatively with symptomatic domains (e.g., depression, anxiety), assessed using the Brief Symptomatic Inventory, which supported adequate construct validity. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis using the original samples from Asia and the West when YPSQ was initially developed and the portuguese sample, showed invariance of the factor structure across these cultures including Portugal. The factor structure of the YPSQ was confirmed, suggesting that this measure may be adequate to assess positive schemas in the European Portuguese-speaking Population. More research is still required to demonstrate other psychometric properties of the instrument using clinical populations.