Table 3. Differences in latent factor mean between girls and boys when differential item functioning for gender is not accounted for, and when it is accounted for.

	Not accounting for differential item functioning		Accounting for differential item functioning
	Δ Latent meana	Cohen’s d	Δ Latent meana	Cohen’s d
Emotional problems	-0.61**	1.062	-0.65**	1.147
Conduct problems	0.11**	0.280	0.43**	1.113
Hyperactivity/ inattention	-0.10**	0.188	-0.09**	0.181
Peer problems	0.07*	0.116	0.07*	0.117
Prosocial behaviors	-0.50**	0.622	-0.37**	0.439

^a For each subscale, the latent mean for girls is fixed to zero and used as reference. Negative values therefore indicate that boys have lower than girls on the latent SDQ scale, whereas positive values indicate that boys have higher scores than girls on the latent SDQ subscale.

* = p < .01

** = p < .001