The Dimensionality of the 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): Comparisons of Factor Structures and Invariance Across Samples and Time
The Dimensionality of the 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): Comparisons of Factor Structures and Invariance Across Samples and Time
复制标题
DOI：
10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01300
复制
发表时间：
2020-06-11
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Johnsen, Bjorn Helge
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hystad, Sigurd W.;Johnsen, Bjorn Helge
由12个条目组成的一般健康问卷(GHQ-12)因其简明扼要而成为目前最受欢迎和使用最多的心理苦恼测量工具之一。大多数随后的因子分析研究最初打算作为一维测量，但未能支持GHQ-12作为单一结构，而是提出了过多的多维结构。在这项研究中，我们进一步研究了两个不同军事样本的因素结构，一个由部署在反海盗行动和北约海军常备群部署中的四艘不同护卫舰的船员组成(N=591)，另一个由来自三个不同猎雷人/扫雷舰的船员组成，在北约反雷常备群部署中(N=196)。第一个样本的验证性因素分析(CFA)结果支持双因素模型，由一个代表所有项目的共同性的一般因素和两个反映措辞效应(消极和积极措辞项目)共同差异的特定因素组成。多组CFA进一步证实这种结构在我们的第二个样本中是不变的。结构方程模型还显示，一般因素与失眠症状和精神健康密切相关，而特定因素与标准变量的关联不显著或明显较弱。总体而言，我们的结果与这样的概念是一致的，即在许多先前的研究中表现出的多维性最有可能是由项目措辞引起的方法特定差异的表达。与这些特定因素相关的可解释的独特方差进一步相对较小。因此，忽略多维性并将GHQ-12作为单一结构对待，很可能会给大多数实际应用带来最小的偏差。
Because of its brevity, the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) has become one of the most popular and used measure for detecting psychological distress. Originally intended as a unidimensional measure, the majority of subsequent factor-analytic studies have failed to support GHQ-12 as a unitary construct and have instead proposed a plethora of multidimensional structures. In this study, we further examined the factor structure in two different military samples, one consisting of crewmembers from four different frigates deployed in anti-piracy operations and Standing NATO Maritime Group deployments (N= 591) and one consisting of crewmember from three different minehunters/sweepers serving in Standing NATO Mine Counter-Measures Group deployments (N= 196). Results from confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) performed in the first sample supported a bifactor model, consisting of a general factor representing communality among all items and two specific factors reflecting common variance due to wording effects (negatively and positively phrased items). A multi-group CFA further confirmed this structure to be invariant across our second sample. Structural equation modeling also showed that the general factor was strongly associated with symptoms of insomnia and mental health, whereas the specific factors were either non-significantly or considerably weaker associated with the criterion variables. Overall, our results are congruent with the notion that the multidimensionality demonstrated in many previous investigations is most likely an expression of method-specific variance caused by item wording. The explained unique variance associated with these specific factors was further relatively small. Ignoring the multidimensionality and treating GHQ-12 as a unitary construct will therefore most likely introduce minimal bias to most practical applications.