Easton Scott D, Safadi Najwa S, Wang Yihan, Hasson Robert G
School of Social Work, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, McGuinn Hall, Room 207, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467, USA.
Department of Social Work, Al-Quds University, Main Campus, Abu Dies, P.O Box 51000, Jerusalem, Palestine.
Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2017 Oct 27;15(1):215. doi: 10.1186/s12955-017-0783-9.
The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale has been widely used in assessing psychological distress among general and clinical populations from different cultural backgrounds. To our knowledge, however, researchers have not yet validated any translated versions in Arabic. The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of Arabic translations of the ten item (K10) and six item (K6) versions among public sector employees in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
As part of a larger research project on life satisfaction, researchers collected data from 234 Palestinian social workers in June and July of 2016. The survey included several mental health measures, including the K10, which were translated from English to Arabic by an experienced language expert. In the current study, we tested reliability by measuring internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Next, we assessed factor structure using variance-covariance matrix with maximum likelihood estimation. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to examine three competing models: unidimensional K10 model, unidimensional K6 model and two-factor K6 model. Fit indices and parameter estimates were reported. Last, convergent validity was examined by assessing correlations with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) and Somatic Symptoms Scale (SSS-8).
The mean scores for the K6 and K10 were, respectively, 12.87 (SD = 4.02) and 21.8 (SD = 6.7), indicative of mild to moderate levels of distress. Scale reliability analysis showed satisfactory results on both K6 and K10 versions (Cronbach's α = .81 (K6) and .88 (K10)). Among three competing models, the two-factor K6 scale demonstrated the best model fit with high factorial correlations (r = .60, p < .001). Moreover, the K6 has high convergent validity with GAD-7 (r = .66, p < .001) and SSS-8 (r = .61, p < .001).
Results indicated that the translated version of the two-factor K6 scale is a valid and reliable measurement of psychological distress. Our findings suggest that practitioners and researchers can use this instrument in screening and assessing psychological symptoms with Arabic-speaking populations.
凯斯勒心理困扰量表已被广泛用于评估来自不同文化背景的普通人群和临床人群的心理困扰。然而，据我们所知，研究人员尚未对其阿拉伯语翻译版本进行验证。本研究的目的是测试在巴勒斯坦被占领土公共部门雇员中，十项（K10）和六项（K6）版本的阿拉伯语翻译的信度和效度。
作为一项关于生活满意度的大型研究项目的一部分，研究人员于2016年6月和7月收集了234名巴勒斯坦社会工作者的数据。该调查包括多项心理健康测量指标，其中包括K10，它由一位经验丰富的语言专家从英语翻译成阿拉伯语。在本研究中，我们通过使用克朗巴赫α系数测量内部一致性来测试信度。接下来，我们使用最大似然估计的方差协方差矩阵评估因子结构。进行验证性因子分析以检验三个竞争模型：单维K10模型、单维K6模型和双因子K6模型。报告了拟合指数和参数估计值。最后，通过评估与广泛性焦虑障碍（GAD - 7）和躯体症状量表（SSS - 8）的相关性来检验收敛效度。
K6和K10的平均得分分别为12.87（标准差 = 4.02）和21.8（标准差 = 6.7），表明存在轻度至中度的困扰水平。量表信度分析显示K6和K10版本均有令人满意的结果（克朗巴赫α系数 = 0.81（K6）和0.88（K10））。在三个竞争模型中，双因子K6量表显示出最佳的模型拟合，具有较高的因子相关性（r = 0.60，p < 0.001）。此外，K6与GAD - 7（r = 0.66，p < 0.001）和SSS - 8（r = 0.61，p < 0.001）具有较高的收敛效度。
结果表明，双因子K6量表的翻译版本是心理困扰的有效且可靠的测量工具。我们的研究结果表明，从业者和研究人员可以使用该工具对说阿拉伯语的人群进行心理症状的筛查和评估。
