The Brief 10-Item Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences-Positive Scale (Brief CAPE-P10): Initial psychometric properties, gender measurement invariance and mean differences among Nigerian adolescents.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences-Positive Scale (CAPE-P) for its psychometric properties in terms of its reliability and validity, in addition to its factor structure and gender measurement invariance among Nigerian adolescents (n = 1336, Mage = 15.15). The sample consisted of 606 (45.4%) males, who completed the 20-items CAPE-P in addition to the Positive and Negative Suicide Ideation Inventory (PANSI), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). We compared 11 a priori models of the CAPE-P with the aim of identifying the one with the best fit indices applying Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Gender measurement invariance was examined with nested multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA). All the 11 a priori models had poor fit indices. An examination of the scale's 20 items revealed that 10 items had poor correlation with the overall scale. The remaining 10 items which we labelled as the Brief CAPE-P10 were subjected to CFA which yielded a 3-factor model (Bizarre Experiences-5 items, Delusional Ideation-3 items and Perceptual Anomalies-2 items) with satisfactory fit indices (CFI = 0.961, SRMR = 0.0376, RMSEA = 0.062/90% CI = 0.052-0.069). The validity and reliability of the Brief CAPE-P10 and its subscales were modestly satisfactory. MGCFA affirmed the configural, metric and scalar gender invariance of the 3-factor Brief CAPE-P10. The Brief CAPE-P10 is a promising instrument for the evaluation of PLEs among Nigerian adolescents.