Open AccessEvaluating the eight-item Patient Health Questionnaire's psychometric properties with Mexican and Central American descent university students.
Author(s) -
David Alpizar,
Luciana Laganà,
Scott W. Plunkett,
Brian F. French
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
psychological assessment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.96
H-Index - 140
eISSN - 1939-134X
pISSN - 1040-3590
DOI - 10.1037/pas0000521
Subject(s) - psycinfo , psychology , patient health questionnaire , convergent validity , clinical psychology , depression (economics) , psychometrics , construct validity , measurement invariance , test validity , depressive symptoms , quality of life (healthcare) , medline , psychiatry , confirmatory factor analysis , structural equation modeling , anxiety , statistics , mathematics , political science , economics , law , internal consistency , psychotherapist , macroeconomics
Depression can be a serious aliment influencing the lives of millions of persons. Person's health conditions worsen and daily functioning declines in the presence of depression. However, little attention has been given to how depression is accurately assessed in diverse populations from other countries residing in the United States. Thus, this study examined the factor structure, factorial invariance, concurrent validity, and convergent validity of the widely used 8-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8) among emerging adults of Mexican and Central American (e.g., Salvadorians, Guatemalans) men and women residing in the United States. Undergraduate student participants (n = 2,782) completed an online or paper-and-pencil version of the assessment. Support was found for two-factor and one-factor solutions; however, the unidimensional structure was recommended due to the very high correlation between the two factors (r ≥ .87). The unidimensional scale was invariant between (a) Mexican and Central American descent and (b) men and women. Depressive symptoms (as measured in the PHQ-8) were significantly correlated with another valid and reliable measured of depression, and scores on the PHQ-8 were significantly correlated with theoretically related variables (i.e., quality of life, parental support, and perceived stress). (PsycINFO Database Record