METHODS: TOY8 was designed and developed to screen for developmental problems in children aged 3-5 years in Malay and English by an interdisciplinary research team drawing upon both national and international guidelines, and then reviewed by an expert panel (n = 5). Two samples of parents and their children were recruited: 1767 dyads to complete the English TOY8 and another 1724 dyads to complete the Malay TOY8.
RESULTS: The confirmatory factor analysis results indicated that the model structure of the English TOY8 matched that of the Malay TOY8. The split-half reliability coefficient indicated adequate to high reliability, which is also consistent with the Malay TOY8. Our results showed that all configural and metric invariance models across groups had a good fit to the data, demonstrating that multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis was appropriate. Finally, scalar invariance was only achieved in certain domains across gender and not in language versions or income groups.
CONCLUSION: The English TOY8 demonstrates construct validity and reliable screening tool for identifying developmental milestones in children aged 3-5 years in Malaysia. In addition, configural and metric invariances across groups in all domains were established, indicating the cross-cultural equivalence of the items, and scalar invariance was established across genders in most 3- to 5-year-old domains. These findings provide preliminary evidence supporting reliability and validity that aligns with previous literature on child development, which indicates a general similarity in the gender and cross-cultural development domains in the first years of life, but not for older children, in terms of language and socioemotional skills.