5 - (SYM 110) Advancing Strength-based Practice Element Utilization Assessment: A Measurement Invariance Study Between American and Korean School Youth on Self-reported CBT Skills

The Social-Emotional Evidence-Based Developmental Strengths Assessment (SEEDS; Ebesutani, 2019) is a novel tool that leverages distillation methodology to screen and track youth social-emotional competencies across important practice element domains. This youth self-report measure queries the utilization of various practice elements (e.g., cognitive restructuring, social skills), aiming to assess the implementation of evidence-based strategies for anxiety, depression, and disruptive behaviors. The SEEDS can help identify areas of intervention based on each youth’s specific practice element skill strengths or areas of improvement, which can aid in treatment planning and progress monitoring.

The SEEDS has been tested with a large Korean community sample (Ebesutani, 2019) and with an English-speaking community population (Matsui & Nakamura, 2022), exhibiting various forms of reliability and validity but has yet to be studied cross-culturally. We will examine measurement invariance between Korean-speaking fourth through sixth graders from Korea (N = 460) and an ethnically diverse (e.g., 60.6% multi-ethnic, 16% Asian, 3.8% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander) English-speaking fourth through sixth-grade public school youth sample from Hawaii (N = 504).

The current study has two aims. First, hierarchical confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) will be conducted to examine measurement invariance between our two samples, testing configural, metric, and scalar models. We hypothesize that the SEEDS will demonstrate a hierarchical structure of a second-order three-factor model with 13 first-order factors (i.e., practice element skills). If measurement invariance is achieved, our second aim will include exploratorily comparing the latent mean differences in higher-order SEEDS scale scores (i.e., Thoughts, Behaviors, Interpersonal) between the two samples. If scalar measurement invariance is not achieved, items with poor factor loadings will be removed until scalar invariance is achieved; then, we will proceed with exploratory comparisons. Theoretical and empirically supported fit models and indices will be explored and presented via alignment methodology. To our knowledge, this is the only empirically supported effort to intersect a practice element framework with primary prevention and evidence-based assessment and treatment strategies. These and other implications will be discussed, particularly related to real-world implementation, cross-cultural considerations, and inspiring community engagement.