Convergent and construct validity and test–retest reliability of the Caen Chronotype Questionnaire in six languages

ABSTRACT

Chronotype questionnaires provide a simple and time-effective approach to assessing individual differences in circadian variations. Chronotype questionnaires traditionally focused on one dimension of chronotype, namely its orientation along a continuum of morningness and eveningness. The Caen Chronotype Questionnaire (CCQ) was developed to assess an additional dimension of chronotype that captures the extent to which individual functioning varies during the day (amplitude). The aim of this study was to provide a multilanguage validation of the CCQ in six world regions (Arabic, Dutch, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish). At Time 1, a total of 2788 participants agreed to take part in the study (Arabic, n = 731; Dutch, n = 538; German, n = 329; Italian, n = 473; Portuguese, n = 361; Spanish, n = 356). Participants completed an assessment of the CCQ together with the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ; Horne & Ostberg 1976) as well as questions related to factors theoretically related to chronotype (age, shift work, physical activity, sleep parameters and coffee consumption). One month later, participants again completed the CCQ. Results showed that the two-factor structure (morningness-eveningness and amplitude) of the CCQ could be replicated in all six languages. However, measurement invariance could not be assumed regarding the factor loadings across languages, meaning that items loaded more on their factors in some translations than in others. Test–retest reliability of the CCQ ranged from unacceptable (German version) to excellent (Dutch, Portuguese). Convergent validity was established through small–medium effect size correlations between the morningness-eveningness dimension of the CCQ and the MEQ. Taken together, our findings generally support the use of the translated versions of the CCQ. Further validation work on the CCQ is required including convergent validation against physiological markers of sleep, health and well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Confirmatory factor analysis
• sleep
• questionnaire validation
• adaptation
• personality

Acknowledgements

Sylvain Laborde and Fabrice Dosseville coordinated the validation project of the Caen Chronotype Questionnaire and wrote the first draft of the paper. All coauthors provided their feedback on the paper, and then Mark Allen finalized the manuscript with Sylvain Laborde. The coauthors are listed by alphabetical order. We indicate below the researchers responsible for each version:

Arabic version: Karim Chamari coordinated the translation and the data collection of the Arabic version, with the help of Asma Aloui, Helmi Ben Saad, Hamdi Chtourou, Abdulaziz Farooq, Monoem Haddad and Karim Khalladi. We would like to thank as well May Awartani and Fawaz Hamie for their help with the translation.

Dutch version: Marijke C.M. Gordijn, Yvonne A.W. de Kort and Karin C.H.J. Smolders coordinated the translation and the data collection of the Dutch version.

German version: Sylvain Laborde coordinated the translation and the data collection of the German version; Barbara Braun; Thomas Hosang and Alexander Wurm helped with the final data analysis.

Italian version: Maurizio Bertollo, Laura Bortoli and Claudio Robazza coordinated the translation and the data collection of the Italian version.

Portuguese version: Pablo Greco and Mariana Lopes coordinated the translation and the data collection of the Portuguese version.

Spanish version: Félix Guillén coordinated the translation and the data collection of the Spanish version.

Declaration of interests

The author(s) declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Supplementary material

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Notes

¹ We should note at this stage that the English version provided in the original validation study of the CCQ did not undergo a full validation procedure, only the translation and back-translation steps. The current investigation also intended to include an English language sample. Data were collected from 365 Australian adults at Time 1 with 337 completing follow-up questionnaires 1 month later. However, due to human error, one question from the CCQ was not included (at either time point) and, therefore, it was necessary to discard this data for the purpose of validation.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.