The Youth Internalizing Problems Screener: Validation in Serbian Adolescents and Measurement Invariance across Serbia and the USA.

The Youth Internalizing Problems Screener (YIPS) is a recently developed measure of general internalizing problems in adolescence. Validity evidence supporting interpretation and use of the YIPS outside the USA is still limited, and no research to date has examined cross-national invariance of this scale. Using two samples of Serbian adolescents, the present study examined the factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and convergent and incremental validity of a Serbian language version of the YIPS. Following, we evaluated the measurement invariance of the YIPS across Serbian and USA samples. Evidence for a one-factor structure and good internal consistency for the Serbian YIPS was found. The scale scores yielded strong associations with measures of depression, anxiety, life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect, indicating evidence of convergent validity. YIPS scores also had a unique contribution over and above depression and anxiety in predicting subjective well-being, thus supporting incremental validity. Partial scalar invariance for the YIPS measurement model was indicated across Serbian and USA samples. We conclude the YIPS appears to be a psychometrically sound measure of general internalizing problems among Serbian adolescents.