Psychometric Evaluation of a New Digitally Animated Child Self-Report Assessment Instrument: The Interactive Child Distress Screener

Abstract

The present study aimed to provide the first psychometric evaluation of the newly developed, digitally animated assessment instrument: the Interactive Child Distress Screener ( ICDS). The latent factor structure of the novel ICDS was first established using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on 15 pairs of animated items using a community sample ( N = 266) of child–parent dyads. EFA results support a two-factor structure representing two broad domains of internalizing and externalizing difficulties ( r = .52) and comprised 12 items. The reliability of the factors was strong with ordinal alpha and omega coefficients above .84 and .87, respectively, for each of the subscales. Convergent validity for the overall sample was supported with established child and parent-reported measures of internalizing and externalizing problems; however, the ICDS factors demonstrated convergence greater in magnitude with other child-reported measures such as the Me and My School Survey. Satisfaction and utility ratings by children indicated that the digital format was highly acceptable.