The reliability and validity of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire'07 for children aged 4-6 years in mainland China.
The Chinese DCDQ'07 works for five- to six-year-olds but is shaky for four-year-olds.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Hua et al. (2015) tested the Chinese version of the DCDQ'07. This is a parent checklist that flags motor-coordination problems.
Parents of preschoolers in mainland China filled out the form twice. The team checked how well the scores stayed the same and if they matched other motor tests.
What they found
For five- and six-year-olds, the Chinese DCDQ'07 was solid. Scores were stable and lined up with other movement measures.
For four-year-olds, the tool stumbled. It missed many kids who really had motor delays and flagged some who were fine.
How this fits with other research
Takayanagi et al. (2016) also gave a parent checklist to East-Asian preschoolers. Their Japanese ADHD form worked well at age five, matching the good DCDQ'07 results at that age.
Ke et al. (2020) warn that Chinese kids move differently on Western tests. They scored higher on balance but lower on ball skills. This backs the need for local norms like the ones Jing built.
Lee et al. (2023) show another preschool scale that breaks down at young ages. Their ToMI-2 failed in three- to seven-year-olds, echoing the weak DCDQ'07 scores for four-year-olds.
Why it matters
Use the Chinese DCDQ'07 to screen for Developmental Coordination Disorder in kindergarten kids aged five to six. Skip it for four-year-olds; the risk of false negatives is too high. Pair it with a movement test, not alone, and always compare against local norms, not Western ones.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
An effective population-based screening tool is needed to identify possible cases of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) among preschool children in mainland China. We examined the psychometric properties of the DCD questionnaire'07 (DCDQ'07) in Chinese children aged 4-6. A total of 3316 children from 10 nursery schools were involved in the study. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the DCDQ'07 were estimated using Cronbach's alpha, item-total correlation and intraclass correlation co-efficient (ICC). The construct validity was evaluated using the exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to measure the accuracy of the DCDQ'07. The results showed that both internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha value of all items were above 0.85) and test-retest reliability (ICCs of 13 items and subscales were above 0.9) were excellent. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that each goodness-of-fit indices of the 3-factor model was above 0.9, indicating a satisfactory fit of the data to the model. Area under the ROC curve was comparatively small (0.641). With the exception of construct validity in younger children (4 years old) and discriminative validity, the Chinese version of the DCDQ'07 achieves satisfactory reliability and construct validity in mainland China. Nevertheless, the questionnaire should be not used in younger children, and further studies are needed to explore the use of Little DCD-Q in Chinese preschool children.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2015 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2015.10.006