Psychometric properties of the Somatic Symptom Scale 8 (SSS-8) in a representative sample of German adolescents
Open accessAbstract
Objective The psychometric properties of the Somatic Symptom Scale 8 (SSS-8) have been investigated in different studies. However, there is no study examining its psychometric properties on representative data of adolescents. The study at hand will present results from a large representative sample of German adolescents (13 to 18 years).Methods The following analyses draw on cross-sectional data from German ninth-grade students collected in 2015. Altogether, 10,638 individuals were surveyed with a return rate of 68.5% as part of a periodic representative survey in the German federal state of Lower Saxony.Results For the SSS-8, coefficient omega for the full sample was ω = 0.90, and ω = 0.77 and 0.79 for males and females, respectively. In addition, a convergent validity was determined with the Patient Health Questionnaire 2 (PHQ-2), Generalized Anxiety Disorder 2 (GAD-2), and the brief form of Perceived Social Support Questionnaire (FSozU-K6). Based on a confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance analysis (for gender and migration background), the initially determined factor structure by Gierk et al. of the SSS-8 could be confirmed.Conclusion The results support the reliability and validity of the SSS-8 for use with adolescents. The use of the SSS-8 seems to be meaningful within different frameworks, especially when, due to a lack of time or for reasons of cost, no face-to-face interviews can be conducted.
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The SSS-8 has shown distinct and overlapping construct validity with measures of anxiety and depression.
“The measure has shown distinct and overlapping construct validity with measures of anxiety and depression (Kliem et al., 2021).”
From I've Seen Enough: Measuring the Toll of Content Moderation on Mental Health (2025) · cites this paper as Kliem et al., 2021
The German version of the SSS-8 has good psychometric properties in adolescents.
“The German version of the SSS-8 has good psychometric properties in adolescents [148];”
From Efficacy of a transdiagnostic Internet prevention approach in adolescents (EMPATIA study): study protocol of a randomized controlled trial (2024) · cites this paper as [148]
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“The German version of the SSS-8 has good psychometric properties in adolescents [148]; (10) the Perceived Stress Scale ( PSS-4 [149]), a 4-item questionnaire measuring perceived stress on a 5-point scale from Never (1) to Very often (5).”
BackgroundI've Seen Enough: Measuring the Toll of Content Moderation on Mental Health
Gauthier, G. M., Ali, E., Asim, A., Cornell-Maier, S., & Zoellner, L. A. (2025) · arXiv · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2511.09813
- Authors
- Kliem, S., Krieg, Y., Beller, J., Brähler, E., & Baier, D.
- Affiliations
- Ernst Abbe University of Applied Sciences Jena (DE)
- Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (DE)
- Medizinische Hochschule Hannover (DE)
- University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (DE)
- ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Kliem, Sören
- Venue
- Journal of Psychosomatic Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-10
- Volume
- 149
- Pages
- 110593
- ISSN
- 0022-3999 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3190759556
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 5 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 1.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Psychosomatic Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften digital collection (Zurich University of Applied Sciences) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- ZHAW Digital Collection (cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- somatic symptoms, adolescents, psychometric properties, reliability statistics, convergent validity, measurement invariance, gender differences, migration background, factor structure, German adolescents
- MeSH terms
- Medically Unexplained Symptoms, Patient Health Questionnaire, Adolescent, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Psychometrics, Reproducibility of Results
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