Establishing the Structural Validity, Language-Based Performance, and Convergent Validity of the Caregiver Strain Questionnaire-Short Form 11 Within a Latinx Sample

Caregiver strain or stress resulting from caring for a child with emotional/behavioral problems-can negatively impact the psychological health of caregivers and may underly decisions to seek mental health services for their youth. The Caregiver Strain Questionnaire-Short Form 11 (CGSQ-SF11) was developed to assess caregiver strain, but a Spanish language form has yet to be evaluated, limiting its utility with Latinx families. This study evaluated the CGSQ-SF11 as a tool for assessing caregiver strain among Latinx caregivers. The sample included 511 Latinx caregivers of youths aged 6-18 who self-selected into English (n = 275) or Spanish (n = 236) questionnaires. In general, caregivers reported moderate levels of caregiver strain, and caregivers who completed the Spanish survey reported significantly lower youth mental health problem severity and caregiver strain relative to those in the English survey. Confirmatory factor analyses suggest that a three-factor structure fit the data better (i.e., objective, subjective internalized, and subjective externalized strain) than a global factor. However, a bifactor model suggested that the variance in the total score was best represented by a unidimensional structure. The CGSQ-SF11 achieved metric invariance, which suggests that the latent variable and strength of factor loadings for the global scale were similar across language forms. Finally, we provide evidence of convergent validity through associations between the CGSQ-SF11 global scale and measures of youth internalizing and externalizing problems. Our findings support the use of CGSQ-SF11 English and Spanish language forms with Latinx caregivers.