Psychometric properties of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale–21 (DASS-21) across nine countries/regions
Document Type
Article
Source of Publication
International Journal of Testing
Publication Date
1-1-2025
Abstract
Examinations of the internal structure of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) have yielded inconsistent conclusions within and across cultural contexts. This study examined the dimensionality and reliability of the DASS-21 across three theoretically plausible factor structures (i.e., unidimensional, oblique three-factor, and bifactor) as well as measurement equivalence/invariance of the DASS-21 using two different approaches (i.e., multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and the alignment approach) with a large, diverse sample of 2,920 young adult college student participants from nine countries/regions (i.e., Australia, Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong, Lithuania, Taiwan, Türkiye, United Arab Emirates, and the United States). Results showed an excellent fit of the bifactor model in all countries/regions except the UAE and the US in which the model did not converge. Regarding parameter equivalence, we found configural, threshold, and loading invariance for the oblique three-factor model (across the nine studied countries/regions) and for the bifactor model (across seven countries/regions). Results indicate that DASS-21 scores measure a general psychological distress factor with more validity and reliability than depression, anxiety, or stress constructs independently. Findings supported the bifactor structure of DASS-21 and demonstrated that cross-cultural comparisons using this scale should be conducted using proper procedures, such as the alignment approach.
DOI Link
ISSN
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Volume
25
Issue
2
First Page
178
Last Page
193
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences
Keywords
Bifactor, cross-cultural validation, Dass-21, general distress, measurement invariance
Scopus ID
Recommended Citation
Zanon, Cristian; Zhao, Nan; Topkaya, Nursel; Şahin, Ertuğrul; Vogel, David L.; Ertl, Melissa M.; Sanatkar, Samineh; Liao, Hsin Ya; Rubin, Mark; Baptista, Makilim N.; Mak, Winnie W.S.; Al-Darmaki, Fatima Rashed; Schomerus, Georg; Wang, Ying Fen; and Nasvytienė, Dalia, "Psychometric properties of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale–21 (DASS-21) across nine countries/regions" (2025). All Works. 7205.
https://zuscholars.zu.ac.ae/works/7205
Indexed in Scopus
yes
Open Access
no