Aitor Larzabal-Fernandez, Katherine Pilco, Rodrigo Moreta-Herrera, Jose A Rodas
{"title":"Psychometric Properties of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale in a Sample of Adolescents from Ecuador.","authors":"Aitor Larzabal-Fernandez, Katherine Pilco, Rodrigo Moreta-Herrera, Jose A Rodas","doi":"10.1007/s10578-023-01501-4","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Kessler psychological distress scale is a useful tool for identifying possible psychological problems and has been widely used in research and health services. Unfortunately, its application in various populations has not always been psychometrically supported. For this reason, the present study investigated the psychometric properties of its Spanish version in adolescents, verifying its factorial structure, measurement invariance by gender, internal consistency and the discrimination and difficulty parameters of its items according to the Item Response Theory (IRT). A sample of 5132 Ecuadorian adolescents was evaluated. The sample is equally distributed between male and female participants (50%) and basic and higher education (51% the former). All participants were between 11 and 20 years old. The results show that a 9-item version with correlated intercepts presents the best fit. In addition, it is invariant by gender at a strict level and has adequate internal consistency. IRT analyses indicated that all the items, except for item eight, present adequate discrimination and difficulty. Based on these results, we conclude that the 9-item version of the Psychological Distress Scale is the most appropriate for this population.</p>","PeriodicalId":10024,"journal":{"name":"Child Psychiatry & Human Development","volume":" ","pages":"1413-1422"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9910781/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Child Psychiatry & Human Development","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-023-01501-4","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/2/9 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHIATRY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The Kessler psychological distress scale is a useful tool for identifying possible psychological problems and has been widely used in research and health services. Unfortunately, its application in various populations has not always been psychometrically supported. For this reason, the present study investigated the psychometric properties of its Spanish version in adolescents, verifying its factorial structure, measurement invariance by gender, internal consistency and the discrimination and difficulty parameters of its items according to the Item Response Theory (IRT). A sample of 5132 Ecuadorian adolescents was evaluated. The sample is equally distributed between male and female participants (50%) and basic and higher education (51% the former). All participants were between 11 and 20 years old. The results show that a 9-item version with correlated intercepts presents the best fit. In addition, it is invariant by gender at a strict level and has adequate internal consistency. IRT analyses indicated that all the items, except for item eight, present adequate discrimination and difficulty. Based on these results, we conclude that the 9-item version of the Psychological Distress Scale is the most appropriate for this population.
期刊介绍:
Child Psychiatry & Human Development is an interdisciplinary international journal serving the groups represented by child and adolescent psychiatry, clinical child/pediatric/family psychology, pediatrics, social science, and human development. The journal publishes research on diagnosis, assessment, treatment, epidemiology, development, advocacy, training, cultural factors, ethics, policy, and professional issues as related to clinical disorders in children, adolescents, and families. The journal publishes peer-reviewed original empirical research in addition to substantive and theoretical reviews.