Monahan 2022 - CCAPS-62

The paper discusses the internal validity and measurement invariance of a psychological symptom assessment tool (CCAPS-62) among autistic and non-autistic college students. 

Key Takeaways

• The CCAPS-62 had a strong model fit and was invariant across groups.
• This study examined these two concepts in relation to autistic college students compared with non-autistic college students using the Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms (CCAPS)-62 item tool.

The main approach discussed in this paper is confirmatory factor analysis, which is a statistical technique used to evaluate the internal validity and measurement invariance of an instrument. This method was applied to data from 1,268 autistic college students and 3,776 non-autistic college students using the Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms (CCAPS)-62 item tool.

The results of this paper indicate that the CCAPS-62 had a strong model fit and was invariant across groups, meaning it is suitable for use with both autistic and non-autistic college students. This suggests that scores on the same construct are comparable between different populations or subgroups of people, indicating good internal validity and measurement invariance for this instrument.

This paper has contributed to the understanding of how well an instrument such as CCAPS-62 can be used across different populations or subgroups.

• Internal validity refers to the extent that an instrument measures what it is intended to measure, while measurement invariance means that scores on the same construct are comparable between different populations or subgroups of people.