The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21): do they measure anything beyond a general factor?

 The overlap between depression and anxiety is a widely-replicated finding in mental health research. The Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scales (DASS-21) were developed to maximize the discrimination between these constructs. However, research suggests that DASS-21 predominantly measure an ove...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: D. Valencia, Pablo
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:Perú
Institución:Universidad Femenina del Sagrado Corazón
Repositorio:Revistas - Universidad Femenina del Sagrado Corazón
Idioma:español
OAI Identifier:oai:revistas.unife.edu.pe:article/1796
Acceso en línea:https://revistas.unife.edu.pe/index.php/avancesenpsicologia/article/view/1796
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:depresión, ansiedad, DASS-21, análisis factorial, modelo bifactor
depression, anxiety, DASS-21, factor analysis, bifactor model.
Descripción
Sumario: The overlap between depression and anxiety is a widely-replicated finding in mental health research. The Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scales (DASS-21) were developed to maximize the discrimination between these constructs. However, research suggests that DASS-21 predominantly measure an overall factor of emotional distress. In this study, DASS-21 were translated and applied to 353 university students (Mage = 20.42; 61% women) from Lima, Peru. The confirmatory factorial analysis supported a bifactor model, but additional analyses revealed that the data were essentially one-dimensional. Moreover, when the items were subjected to a bifactor exploratory analysis, some did not load into their original specific factors. The conclusion was that DASS-21 must be interpreted as a global dimension of emotional distress.