Abstract

Psychometric evaluation of the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS21) among university students

Author(s): Mahmoud Ali Moussa, Shewikar Farrag, and Abdul Nasser El-Sayed Amer

Objectives: The study aimed to investigate the global structure of depression, anxiety, and stress scale. Previous studies have shown that there is a conflict in determining the most accurate construction. The study verified seven models like first and second order of general factor model, Confirmatory 3 factor model, two factor, and Bi-factor model.

Methodology: 434 students from Suez Canal University, College of Education participated in this study. The sample was chosen by the snowball method. The abbreviated version was translated into Arabic with the help of English language curriculum specialists. The scale consisted of 21 items distributed on three factors: anxiety, stress, and depression. The five-point Likert scale was chosen to respond to items. IBM SPSS V26 and M Plus V8 used to perform the data analysis.

Results: The results reached the perfection of the exploratory three factors than the Bi-factor model. The overall stability of the scale by the alpha coefficient reached 0.949, while the alpha coefficient ranged from 0.854 to 0.884 for the three dimensions. The study showed high rates of stress, while levels of depression and anxiety were moderate among participants. The study limitations were that the high sample size in females than males, which doubts the generalization of depression dimension results in new samples.