CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 237Psychometric Methodologies and TestingAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesMental Health Treatment and Access

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 34 of the 34 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The Kessler psychological distress scale: translation and validation of an Arabic version

Open access
Easton, Scott D., Safadi, Najwa S., Wang, Yihan, Hasson, Robert G.·2017·Health and Quality of Life Outcomes
DOI 10.1186/s12955-017-0783-9PMC PMC5658946
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale has been widely used in assessing psychological distress among general and clinical populations from different cultural backgrounds. To our knowledge, however, researchers have not yet validated any translated versions in Arabic. The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of Arabic translations of the ten item (K10) and six item (K6) versions among public sector employees in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. METHODS: As part of a larger research project on life satisfaction, researchers collected data from 234 Palestinian social workers in June and July of 2016. The survey included several mental health measures, including the K10, which were translated from English to Arabic by an experienced language expert. In the current study, we tested reliability by measuring internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Next, we assessed factor structure using variance-covariance matrix with maximum likelihood estimation. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to examine three competing models: unidimensional K10 model, unidimensional K6 model and two-factor K6 model. Fit indices and parameter estimates were reported. Last, convergent validity was examined by assessing correlations with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) and Somatic Symptoms Scale (SSS-8). RESULTS: The mean scores for the K6 and K10 were, respectively, 12.87 (SD = 4.02) and 21.8 (SD = 6.7), indicative of mild to moderate levels of distress. Scale reliability analysis showed satisfactory results on both K6 and K10 versions (Cronbach's α = .81 (K6) and .88 (K10)). Among three competing models, the two-factor K6 scale demonstrated the best model fit with high factorial correlations (r = .60, p < .001). Moreover, the K6 has high convergent validity with GAD-7 (r = .66, p < .001) and SSS-8 (r = .61, p < .001). CONCLUSION: Results indicated that the translated version of the two-factor K6 scale is a valid and reliable measurement of psychological distress. Our findings suggest that practitioners and researchers can use this instrument in screening and assessing psychological symptoms with Arabic-speaking populations.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1186/s12955-017-0783-9

Cites

34 of 34 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Show all 34 references

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. Easton SD, Safadi NA, Hasson RH. “We deal with symptoms rather than causes”: Challenges in Formulating Anti-Poverty Policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Journal of Loss and Trauma. (In press)
  2. Fawcett PD. Translation and language: linguistic theories explained. Manchester, England: St Jerome Publishing; 1997.
  3. Jöreskog KG, Sörbom D. LISREL 8.7 for windows [computer software]. Lincolnwood, IL: Scientific Software International, Inc.; 2004.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 201–236 of 236

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Easton, S. D., Safadi, N. S., Wang, Y., & Hasson, R. G.
Affiliations
  • Boston College (US)
  • Al-Quds University (PS)
Corresponding author
Easton, Scott D.
ORCID
Venue
Health and Quality of Life Outcomes
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2017-10-27
Volume
15
Issue
1
Pages
215-215
ISSN
1477-7525 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/s12955-017-0783-9
PMC
PMC5658946
OpenAlex
W2765770230
Cited by
237
References
34
Citations by year
2026: 15 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 35 · 2023: 48 · 2022: 48 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 5
FWCI
7.27
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Health and Quality of Life Outcomes (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • Boston College, Office of the Provost (2016 Research Expense Grant)
  • Boston College, School of Social Work (2016 Research Fund)
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
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Mental Health Treatment and Access
Keywords
Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, K10, K6, psychological distress, Arabic translation, cross-cultural adaptation, scale validation, factor structure, convergent validity, reliability statistics, public sector employees, social workers, occupied Palestinian territories, anxiety, somatic symptoms
MeSH terms
Adult, Anxiety, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Female, Humans, Language, Male, Middle Aged, Quality of Life, Surveys and Questionnaires, Stress, Psychological, Translations, Reproducibility of Results, Likelihood Functions, Arabs

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review