Hornsby, B.W.Y., Camarata, S., Cho, S.-J. et al. (3 more authors) (2022) Development and Evaluation of Pediatric Versions of the Vanderbilt Fatigue Scale for Children With Hearing Loss. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 65 (6). pp. 2343-2363. ISSN: 1092-4388
Abstract
Purpose:
Growing evidence suggests that fatigue associated with listening difficulties is particularly problematic for children with hearing loss (CHL). However, sensitive, reliable, and valid measures of listening-related fatigue do not exist. To address this gap, this article describes the development, psychometric evaluation, and preliminary validation of a suite of scales designed to assess listening-related fatigue in CHL: the pediatric versions of the Vanderbilt Fatigue Scale (VFS-Peds).
Method:
Test development employed best practices, including operationalizing the construct of listening-related fatigue from the perspective of target respondents (i.e., children, their parents, and teachers). Test items were developed based on input from these groups. Dimensionality was evaluated using exploratory factor analyses (EFAs). Item response theory (IRT) and differential item functioning (DIF) analyses were used to identify high-quality items, which were further evaluated and refined to create the final versions of the VFS-Peds.
Results:
The VFS-Peds is appropriate for use with children aged 6–17 years and consists of child self-report (VFS-C), parent proxy–report (VFS-P), and teacher proxy–report (VFS-T) scales. EFA of child self-report and teacher proxy data suggested that listening-related fatigue was unidimensional in nature. In contrast, parent data suggested a multidimensional construct, composed of mental (cognitive, social, and emotional) and physical domains. IRT analyses suggested that items were of good quality, with high information and good discriminability. DIF analyses revealed the scales provided a comparable measure of fatigue regardless of the child's gender, age, or hearing status. Test information was acceptable over a wide range of fatigue severities and all scales yielded acceptable reliability and validity.
Conclusions:
This article describes the development, psychometric evaluation, and validation of the VFS-Peds. Results suggest that the VFS-Peds provide a sensitive, reliable, and valid measure of listening-related fatigue in children that may be appropriate for clinical use. Such scales could be used to identify those children most affected by listening-related fatigue, and given their apparent sensitivity, the scales may also be useful for examining the effectiveness of potential interventions targeting listening-related fatigue in children.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds) |
Date Deposited: | 01 Oct 2025 14:56 |
Last Modified: | 01 Oct 2025 14:56 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Speech-Language-Hearing Association |
Identification Number: | 10.1044/2022_jslhr-22-00051 |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:232142 |