Psychometric assessment of the French European Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ-FE)

Sylvie Ray-Kaeser; Evelyne Thommen; Rose Martini; Marianne Jover; Basilie Gurtner; Anne Martine Bertrand

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0217280

Psychometric assessment of the French European Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ-FE)

PLoS One. 2019 May 23;14(5):e0217280. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217280. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Sylvie Ray-Kaeser¹, Evelyne Thommen², Rose Martini³, Marianne Jover⁴, Basilie Gurtner¹, Anne Martine Bertrand¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Social Work & Health Sciences, EESP, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Lausanne, Switzerland.
² Department of Social Work, School of Social Work & Health Sciences, EESP, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Lausanne, Switzerland.
³ Occupational Therapy Program, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Aix Marseille University, PSYCLE, Aix-en-Provence, France.

Abstract

Background: The Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire'07 (DCDQ'07) is a parent-report measure to identify children at risk for Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). We developed a French version of the DCDQ'07 (DCDQ-FE) that has shown excellent inter-language reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.91) and is culturally relevant for use in European countries. The aims of this study were to examine the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire-French European (DCDQ-FE), as well as establish a cut-off score.

Methods: The psychometric properties of the DCDQ-FE were examined with a clinical group of 30 children (mean age: 9.4 years, SD = 2.6) and a control group of 43 children (mean age: 9.1 years, SD = 2.4). Their parents (n = 73) filled out the DCDQ-FE at a first sitting and 70 of them filled it out 38 days later in average for test-retest reliability. The children were assessed using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 (MABC-2) so as to measure the convergent validity of the DCDQ-FE. The cut-off score was determined with an additional sample of 42 children according to scores on the MABC-2 (≥ 16th percentile) (n = 115).

Results and implications: Internal consistency of the DCDQ-FE was excellent (Cronbach's alpha = 0.96) and test-retest reliability was good (ICC = 0.956) with no differences between scores obtained at the two sittings (p > 0.05). Differences in scores between children in the clinical and control groups (Z = -6.58, p < 0.001) provide evidence of construct validity. The correlation obtained between DCDQ-FE and MABC-2 scores (Spearman's rho correlation coefficient = 0.802, p < 0.001) supports convergent validity. Using a cut-off of 56, overall sensitivity and specificity were 85.0% and 81.6% respectively (area under the curve = 0.896). The DCDQ-FE is a reliable and valid questionnaire for detecting children who are at risk for DCD in a European-French population of children aged 5 to 15 years old.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Case-Control Studies
Child
Child, Preschool
Europe
Female
France
Humans
Male
Motor Skills Disorders / diagnosis*
Motor Skills Disorders / epidemiology
Parents
Psychometrics / methods*
Reproducibility of Results
Surveys and Questionnaires* / statistics & numerical data
Switzerland / epidemiology

Grants and funding

The study was supported with funding from the HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland, health domain (26-015). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.