Factor Structure and Longitudinal Invariance of the Cancer Behaviour Inventory: Assessing Cancer-Coping Self-Efficacy...

Area of Science:

• Psychometric evaluation
• Cancer survivorship research
• Health psychology

Background:

• The Cancer Behaviour Inventory-Brief Version (CBI-BV) assesses cancer-coping self-efficacy, crucial for patient well-being during treatment.
• Longitudinal validity of the CBI-BV is unestablished, limiting its use in studies tracking changes over time.
• Lack of longitudinal invariance evidence hinders confidence in multi-time point cancer research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the factor structure of the CBI-BV.
• To test the longitudinal invariance of the CBI-BV across four time points.
• To assess the measurement's stability in cancer patients with moderate-to-high symptom burden during treatment.

Main Methods:

• Secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial involving 534 cancer patients.
• Longitudinal psychometric evaluation including confirmatory factor analysis.
• Testing for strict measurement invariance across four distinct time points.

Main Results:

• Confirmatory factor analysis supported a four-factor, 12-item structure for the CBI-BV.
• The 12-item measure exhibited good internal consistency and construct validity.
• Strict longitudinal invariance was confirmed across all four time points (CFI=0.930, RMSEA=0.045, SRMA=0.056).

Conclusions:

• The CBI-BV's factor structure remains stable over time in cancer patients with significant symptom burden.
• This stability supports the CBI-BV's use for tracking changes in cancer-coping self-efficacy in longitudinal research.
• The study validates the CBI-BV for continuous assessment of patient outcomes and intervention effectiveness.