Ali Amira Mohammed, Hori Hiroaki, Kim Yoshiharu, Kunugi Hiroshi
Department of Behavioral Medicine, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Department of Psychiatric Nursing and Mental Health, Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
Front Psychol. 2022 Mar 24;13:799769. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.799769. eCollection 2022.
To examine the cultural limitations and implications in the applicability of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 8-items (DASS-8)-a shortened version of the DASS-21 recently introduced in an Arab sample-this study evaluated its psychometric properties, including measurement invariance, among healthy subjects from the United States, Australia, and Ghana. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed good fit of the DASS-8 relative to a 12-item version (DASS-12). Both the DASS-8 and the DASS-12 were invariant at all levels across genders, employment status, and students vs. non-students. The DASS-8/DASS-12 also expressed invariance at the configural and metric levels across all countries, albeit scalar invariance was not maintained due to misspecification of the factor loadings in the Ghanian sample. Mann-Whitney U test revealed significantly lower levels of mental symptomatology on the DASS measures among Ghanian students than in English-speaking respondents (both students and non-students). The DASS-8 expressed excellent internal consistency (coefficient alpha = 0.89), good convergent validity-noted by high values of item-total correlations ( = 0.87 to 0.88), good predictive validity-indicated by significantly strong correlation with the DASS-21 and its subscales ( = 0.95 to 0.80), and adequate discriminant validity-indicated by heterotrait-monotrait ratio of correlations <0.85. The DASS-8 correlated with the Internet Gaming Disorder-9, the Adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder Self-Report Scale, and the Individualism and Collectivism Scale/Culture Orientation Scale at the same level as the DASS-21 and the DASS-12, denoting its adequate criterion validity. The DASS-8 can be used as a brief alternative to the DASS-21 to screen for mental symptomatology in English-speaking and African cultures. However, the same scores on the DASS-8 and the DASS-12 may not always indicate the same level of symptom severity in subjects from different countries. Further inter-cultural evaluations of the DASS-8 are needed.
为了研究抑郁、焦虑和压力量表8项版（DASS - 8）——最近在一个阿拉伯样本中引入的DASS - 21的简化版本——在适用性方面的文化局限性及影响，本研究评估了其在美国、澳大利亚和加纳健康受试者中的心理测量特性，包括测量不变性。验证性因素分析显示，与12项版（DASS - 12）相比，DASS - 8的拟合度良好。DASS - 8和DASS - 12在性别、就业状况以及学生与非学生等所有水平上均具有不变性。DASS - 8/DASS - 12在所有国家的构型和度量水平上也表现出不变性，尽管由于加纳样本中因素负荷的错误指定，标量不变性未得到维持。曼 - 惠特尼U检验显示，加纳学生在DASS量表上的心理症状水平显著低于英语受访者（包括学生和非学生）。DASS - 8表现出出色的内部一致性（α系数 = 0.89）、良好的收敛效度——由项目 - 总分相关性的高值（ = 0.87至0.88）表明、良好的预测效度——由与DASS - 21及其子量表的显著强相关性（ = 0.95至0.80）表明，以及充分的区分效度——由相关异质特质 - 同质特质比率 <0.85表明。DASS - 8与网络游戏障碍 - 9、成人注意力缺陷/多动障碍自我报告量表以及个人主义与集体主义量表/文化取向量表的相关性与DASS - 21和DASS - 12处于同一水平，表明其具有充分的效标效度。DASS - 8可用作DASS - 21的简短替代量表，用于在英语文化和非洲文化中筛查心理症状。然而，DASS - 8和DASS - 12上相同的分数在来自不同国家的受试者中可能并不总是表明相同程度的症状严重程度。需要对DASS - 8进行进一步的跨文化评估。
