Dimensional characteristics of the SCL-90-R: evaluation of gender differences in dually diagnosed inpatients.

The dimensional characteristics of the SCL-90-R were assessed for both male and female dually diagnosed inpatients. Subjects included 402 males and 227 females who presented with concurrent psychiatric and substance use disorders at a private psychiatric hospital. Confirmatory factor analyses resulted in the rejection of four previous measurement models for both genders including the original nine symptom dimensions. Subsequent principal component analyses resulted in four- and seven-component solutions for males and females, respectively; the majority of item covariation was accounted for by the first component. These results are consistent with previous research that has suggested a primary global distress factor and are in contrast to studies that have demonstrated factorial invariance across gender.