Measuring Misophonia in Youth: A Psychometric Evaluation of Child and Parent Measures

Authors

Matti Cervin
Andrew G Guzick
Jane Clinger
Eleanor E A Smith
Isabel A Draper
Wayne K Goodman
Marijn Lijffijt
Nicholas Murphy
Catherine E Rast
Sophie C Schneider
Eric A Storch

Publication Date

10-1-2023

Journal

Journal of Affective Disorders

DOI

10.1016/j.jad.2023.05.093

PMID

37263358

PMCID

PMC11165319

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

6-11-2024

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Author MSS

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Humans, Adolescent, Child, Quality of Life, Psychometrics, Hearing Disorders, Parents

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Misophonia is characterized by intense emotional reactions to specific sounds or visual stimuli and typically onsets during childhood. An obstacle for research and clinical practice is that no comprehensively evaluated measures for pediatric misophonia exist.

METHODS: In a sample of 102 youth meeting the proposed diagnostic criteria of misophonia, we evaluated the child and parent-proxy versions of the self-reported Misophonia Assessment Questionnaire (MAQ; assessing broad aspects of misophonia) and the child version of the Amsterdam Misophonia Scale (A-MISO-S; assessing misophonia severity). Confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis were used to examine factor structures of the measures. Further, child-parent agreement on the MAQ and associations between both measures and misophonia-related impairment, quality of life, and misophonia-related school interference were examined to evaluate aspects of convergent validity.

RESULTS: For both youth- and parent-ratings, four MAQ factors emerged: pessimism, distress, interference, and non-recognition. A-MISO-S showed a unidimensional structure, but the item 'effort to resist' did not load significantly onto the unidimensional factor. Good child-parent agreement on the MAQ scales were found and both MAQ and A-MISO-S were moderately to strongly associated with misophonia-related impairment, quality of life (inverse association), and misophonia-related school interference.

LIMITATIONS: MAQ and A-MISO-S assess sensitivity to auditory but not visual stimuli, the sample size was modest, and repeated assessments were not conducted.

CONCLUSIONS: The combination of MAQ and A-MISO-S shows promise as a multidimensional assessment approach for pediatric misophonia. Future evaluations should include known-groups validity, screening performance, and sensitivity to change in symptom severity.