ArticleBMC medical research methodology2022
Item response theory and differential test functioning analysis of the HBSC-Symptom-Checklist across 46 countries.
Article in BMC medical research methodology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Secular trends in mental health problems among young people in Norway: a review and meta-analysis.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Adolescent Somatic Symptoms Under Psychosocial Adversity: Differential Links of Risk and Protective Factors to Physical and Psychological Burden in Türkiye.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Health Literacy and Mental Health in Adolescents: Parental and Self-Reported Cross-Sectional Data in a Bilingual Region.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Adolescent Mental Health and Health-Related Behaviors Across Language-Based School Systems in South Tyrol, Italy.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2026Article
- Problematic gaming, problematic social media use, and psychological well-being in adolescents: exploring networks of symptoms in 10 European countries.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Article
- Relationships between vigorous physical activity and psychological complaints in adolescents: findings from 240,951 participants.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Technology-Based Parenting and Digital Media Use: Adolescents' Health in a Large, Cross-Sectional Study in Northern Italy.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Parental Health Literacy as a Contextual Factor in Proxy-Reported Child Mental Health: A Population-Based Study of Children Aged 6-10 Years.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The association of parental COVID-19 vaccination decisions with the mental health and lifestyle of children and adolescents.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Exposure to multifaceted violence and subjective health complaints in adolescents: the remit of school health services, a cross-sectional study in Sweden.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Time trends in cluster profiles of psychosomatic problems, self-rated poor health, and low life satisfaction from 2002 to 2022 among adolescents in five Nordic countries.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Exploring mechanisms behind the increasing gender gap in adolescent psychological symptoms, 2002-2022: the role of national-level gender equality.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2025Article
- Four scales measuring mental wellbeing in the Nordic countries: do they tell the same story?Health and quality of life outcomes · 2025Article
- Social support and online interaction and their links to psychosocial well-being among Nordic adolescents: Integrating variable-centered and person-centered approaches.Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence · 2025Article
- Physical Activity as a Mediator in the Relationship Between Body Image Perception and Low Mood in Adolescents.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Article
- Mental health profiles of 15-year-old adolescents in the Nordic Countries from 2002 to 2022: person-oriented analyses.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Adolescents perception of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and associated mental health and well-being: gender, age and socioeconomic differences in 22 countries.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2024Article
- Impact of Digital Media, School Problems, and Lifestyle Factors on Youth Psychosomatic Health: A Cross-Sectional Survey.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Three Decades of Adolescent Health: Unveiling Global Trends Across 41 Countries in Psychological and Somatic Complaints (1994-2022).International journal of public health · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe Symptom Checklist (SCL) developed by the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study is a non-clinical measure of psychosomatic complaints (e.g., headache and feeling low) that has been used in numerous studies. Several studies have investigated the psychometric characteristics of this scale; however, some psychometric properties remain unclear, among them especially a) dimensionality, b) adequacy of the Graded Response Model (GRM), and c) measurement invariance across countries.
methodsData from 229,906 adolescents aged 11, 13 and 15 from 46 countries that participated in the 2018 HBSC survey were analyzed. Adolescents were selected using representative sampling and surveyed by questionnaire in the classroom. Dimensionality was investigated using exploratory graph analysis. In addition, we investigated whether the GRM provided an adequate description of the data. Reliability over the latent variable continuum and differential test functioning across countries were also examined.
resultsExploratory graph analyses showed that SCL can be considered as one-dimensional in 16 countries. However, a comparison of the unidimensional with a post-hoc bifactor GRM showed that deviation from a hypothesized one-dimensional structure was negligible in most countries. Multigroup invariance analyses supported configural and metric invariance, but not scalar invariance across 32 countries. Alignment analysis showed non-invariance especially for the items irritability, feeling nervous/bad temper and feeling low.
conclusionHBSC-SCL appears to represent a consistent and reliable unidimensional instrument across most countries. This bodes well for population health analyses that rely on this scale as an early indicator of mental health status.
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