The Italian version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21: Factor structure and psychometric properties on community and clinical samples

Gioia Bottesi; Marta Ghisi; Gianmarco Altoè; Erica Conforti; Gabriele Melli; Claudio Sica

doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2015.04.005

The Italian version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21: Factor structure and psychometric properties on community and clinical samples

Compr Psychiatry. 2015 Jul:60:170-81. doi: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2015.04.005. Epub 2015 Apr 15.

Authors

Gioia Bottesi¹, Marta Ghisi², Gianmarco Altoè³, Erica Conforti⁴, Gabriele Melli⁵, Claudio Sica⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Italy. Electronic address: gioia.bottesi@unipd.it.
² Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Italy.
³ Department of Developmental and Socialization Psychology, University of Padova, Italy.
⁴ Department of Health Sciences, University of Firenze, Italy.
⁵ Institute of Behavioral and Cognitive Psychology and Psychotherapy (IPSICO), Firenze, Italy.

PMID: 25933937
DOI: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2015.04.005

Abstract

Objective: The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21) is the short version of a self-report measure that was originally developed to provide maximum differentiation between depressive and anxious symptoms. Despite encouraging evidence, the factor structure and other features of the DASS-21 are yet to be firmly established.

Method: A community sample of 417 participants and two clinical groups (32 depressive patients and 25 anxious patients) completed the Italian version of the DASS-21 along with several measures of psychopathology.

Results: Confirmatory factor analyses suggested that the DASS-21 is a measure of general distress plus three additional orthogonal dimensions (anxiety, depression, and stress). The internal consistency and temporal stability of the measure were good; each DASS-21 scale correlated more strongly with a measure of a similar construct, demonstrating good convergent and divergent validity. Lastly, the DASS-21 demonstrated good criterion-oriented validity.

Conclusion: The validity of the Italian DASS-21 and its utility, both for community and clinical individuals, are supported.

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
Anxiety / diagnosis*
Anxiety / psychology
Anxiety Disorders / diagnosis*
Anxiety Disorders / psychology
Depression / diagnosis*
Depression / psychology
Depressive Disorder / diagnosis*
Depressive Disorder / psychology
Factor Analysis, Statistical
Female
Humans
Italy
Male
Middle Aged
Psychometrics
Reproducibility of Results
Sampling Studies
Self Report
Stress, Psychological / diagnosis*
Stress, Psychological / psychology
Surveys and Questionnaires / standards*
Translations