CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 198Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentPsychometric Methodologies and Testing

Validity of the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire in late adolescence

Turner, Nicholas, Joinson, Carol, Peters, Tim J., Wiles, Nicola, Lewis, Glyn·2014·Psychological Assessment
DOI 10.1037/a0036572
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Studies examining the validity of the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ; Angold, Costello, & Messer, 1995) have largely focused on selected or clinical samples in childhood (6-11 years) or early to midadolescence (12-16 years) and have not investigated misclassifications or how the SMFQ relates to adult depression measures. Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (2012), we assessed the validity of the SMFQ in relation to an adult depression measure administered in late adolescence (age 17-18 years). We also investigated sociodemographic and clinical variables previously shown to affect misclassification on short self-administered questionnaires compared with more detailed assessments of depression. We assessed construct validity using factor and item response theory analysis. To investigate content validity, we tabulated SMFQ items against the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10; World Health Organization, 1992) and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) depressive symptoms. Criterion validity was examined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Potential misclassifications were investigated using logistic regression and multiple-indicator multiple-cause modeling. Factor analysis produced high loadings, low residual variances, and appropriate model fit indices. Seven of the 10 ICD-10 depressive symptoms were covered by at least 1 SMFQ item. The discriminatory ability of the SMFQ for meeting ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for depression was very high (area under ROC curve = 0.90). Individuals with anxiety symptoms, females, and less well-educated individuals overreported depressive symptoms on the SMFQ in relation to ICD-10 depression. We conclude the SMFQ is a valid instrument capturing a latent trait of depression in a community-based sample in late adolescence. Further work should be carried out to increase understanding of variables associated with misclassification.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1037/a0036572

Cites

41 of 41 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 42 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Turner, N., Joinson, C., Peters, T. J., Wiles, N., & Lewis, G.
Affiliations
University of Bristol (GB)
ORCID
Venue
Psychological Assessment
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
2014-09
Volume
26
Issue
3
Pages
752-762
ISSN
  • 1040-3590 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-134X
DOI
10.1037/a0036572
OpenAlex
W2147787300
Cited by
198
References
42
Citations by year
2026: 17 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 2
FWCI
11.11
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Psychological Assessment (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Medical Research Council
  • Wellcome Trust (092731)
  • University of Bristol
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
Keywords
Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire, adolescent depression, questionnaire validity, depressive symptoms, ICD-10 diagnostic criteria, misclassification, anxiety symptoms, gender differences, educational attainment, factor analysis, item response theory, Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Depression, Depressive Disorder, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Female, Humans, Male, Psychometrics, Surveys and Questionnaires, ROC Curve, Sensitivity and Specificity, Reproducibility of Results

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review