Psychometric Properties of the Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire in Preschool Children

Abstract

We examined the psychometric properties of the Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire (BIQ; Bishop, Spence, & McDonald, 2003), a rating scale for children's behavioral inhibition. Parent and teacher ratings, parent interviews, and laboratory observations were obtained for 495 preschoolers. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded 6 factors, each reflecting the BIQ's subscales, and all loading onto a second-order general dimension. Model fit was acceptable for parent ratings, but only marginal for teacher ratings. The convergent and discriminant validity of the BIQ was examined by using a multitrait–multimethod approach. Results indicate that the BIQ displays evidence of reliability and validity that can complement observational paradigms.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by NIMH R01 MH069942 (to Daniel N. Klein) and GCRC Grant M01-RR10710 to Stony Brook University from the National Center for Research Resources.

Notes

The results of all other analyses were virtually unchanged when the four outliers were omitted.

For parent report, the error variance associated with the unfamiliar situations factor was negative, but not statistically significantly different from zero. We fixed this parameter to zero after careful examination of the data set and the model ruled out any reason to suspect model misspecification. Monte Carlo studies have shown that nonsignificant negative error variance estimates should not be regarded as an indicator of model misspecification, and that fixing such estimates to zero might reduce bias in parameter estimates (Chen, Bollen, Paxton, Curran, & Kirby, 2001).