Factor structure and psychometric properties of the affective lability scale-short form in Chinese adolescents

Abstract

ObjectivePrevious studies on the reliability and validity of the Affective Lability Scale short-form (ALS-SF) have only been evaluated in adults, which may not be able to generalize to the adolescent population. We aimed to examine the factor structure, the reliability and validity of ALS-SF among Chinese adolescents and construct an adolescent form of ALS (ALS-AF).MethodsA total of 1,439 middle school students were investigated with a broad survey including ALS-SF, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 10-item (CD-RISC-10) and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behavior self-report. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted to investigate the structural validity of ALS-SF and construct ALS-AF. Cronbach's α was used to assess the internal consistency and reliability of the scale. Factor loading, Average Variance Extracted (AVE) and Composite Reliability (CR) were applied to measure the convergent validity and divergent validity. Besides, Correlation and regression analyses were used to explore the relationship between affective lability and depression, anxiety, NSSI and resilience.ResultsFactor analysis failed to support the original three-factor model of 18-item ALS-SF and confirmed the three-factor model of 15-item ALS-AF. The ALS-AF showed good internal consistency as well as strong convergent and discriminative validity. Besides, ALS-AF was positively correlated with PHQ-9, GAD-7 and self-harm, and was negatively associated with resilience.ConclusionOur study shows that the ALS-AF has good reliability and validity for testing affective lability in Chinese adolescents.

Psychometric property study of the Affective Lability Scale-short form in Chinese patients with mood disorders

“…Compared with the Chinese version of the ALS-SF validated in the Chinese adolescent population which removed three items (item 2, 4, 10) from the original scale due to non-significant associations with factors ( 21 ), our study found that the scale structure of the ALS-SF in individuals with mood disorders remained consistent with the original scale. We believe that such differences may result from the different sample population.…”

“…Affective lability is one of the key features of mood disorder and has a significant correlation with the development of the disorders ( 2–4 ). While in adolescent, affective lability is more likely to be associated with personality types, life events, and external environment ( 21 ). In addition, the difference in age may have contributed to the difference in the understanding of items to some extent.…”

“…The Chinese version used in this study was presented in the Supplementary material. This Chinese version of ALS-SF adapted to adolescents has once been validated in Chinese adolescents (21). The original scale consists of a three-factor model assessing the transitions between anxiety and depression (item 1, 3, 5, 6, 7), depression and elation (item 2, 10, 12,13,15,16,17,18), and anger (item 4,8,9,11,14).…”

“…Psychometric properties of the ALS-SF have been validated and replicated in healthy samples ( 18 ), personality disorders ( 17 ), BD ( 19 ), and attention deficit hyperactivity ( 20 ) in various countries. Furthermore, while the Chinese version of ALS-SF has been validated in the general adolescent population ( 21 ), its reliability and validity in the Chinese adult population and in patients with mood disorders remain unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the ALS-SF for Chinese patients with mood disorders and to investigate the relationships between affective lability and depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and neuroticism.…”

Development and validation of the perceived symptom manageability scale among people living with the human immunodeficiency virus

“…CV was assessed by factor loading, Composite Reliability (CR), and Average Variance Extracted (AVE) [ 28 ]. AVE refers to how much variation explained by potential factors comes from measurement error [ 28 , 29 ]. The larger the AVE is, the larger the percentage of variation explained by potential factors is, and the smaller the relative measurement error.…”