Testing measurement invariance of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS-21) across four countries.
Abstract
The rising burden of mental and behavioral disorders has become a global challenge (Murray et al., 2012). Measurement invariant clinical instruments are necessary for the assessment of relevant symptoms across countries. The present study tested the measurement invariance of the 21-item version of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995b) in Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom (U.K.), and the United States of America (U.S.). Telephone interviews were conducted with population-based samples (nPL = 1003, nRU = 3020, nU.K. = 1002, nU.S. = 1002). The DASS-21 shows threshold measurement invariance. Comparisons of latent means did not indicate differences between U.K. and U.S. Samples However, Polish and Russian samples reported more depressive symptoms compared with U.K. and U.S. samples; the Russian sample had the highest levels of anxiety symptoms and the Polish sample demonstrated the highest stress levels. The DASS-21 can be recommended to meaningfully compare the relationships between variables across groups and to compare latent means in Polish-, Russian-, and English-speaking populations. (PsycINFO Database Record
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The DASS-21 has good internal consistency.
“De DASS-21 heeft een goede interne consistentie (Scholten et al., 2017).”
From Effectiviteit van cognitieve gedragstherapie en acceptance and commitment therapy bij verslaving: Een cohortstudie (2024) · cites this paper as Scholten et al., 2017
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- Authors
- Scholten, S., Velten, J., Bieda, A., Zhang, X. C., & Margraf, J.
- Affiliations
- Ruhr University Bochum (DE)
- Venue
- Psychological Assessment
- Published
- 2017-11
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1376-1390
- ISSN
- 1040-3590 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-134X
- OpenAlex
- W2581563282
- Cited by
- 165
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 46 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 8.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Assessment (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
- Topics
- 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
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
- Keywords
- DASS-21, measurement invariance, depression, anxiety, stress, cross-cultural comparison, latent mean differences, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, cross-national comparison
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Anxiety, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Depression, Female, United Kingdom, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Poland, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Psychometrics, Russia, Stress, Psychological, United States, Reproducibility of Results, Young Adult
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