Structure and invariance of the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) in adolescents

Abstract: The main objective of this study was to test the factorial structure and gender invariance of the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) in a non-clinical sample of 657 adolescents (Mage = 16.3 years; SD = 1.19). The research design was an instrumental investigation, based on a cross-sectional survey with a sample of adolescents in Brazil. The results presented satisfactory evidence of the validity of the factorial structure and gender invariance for the sample. The composite reliability was also satisfactory, and no problems were detected related to common method bias. The mean of the items explained variance was .31 (31 %), with a Cronbach’s Alpha at .84 for the total scale, .81 and .69 for the anxiety and depression subscales, respectively. In the discussion, we analyzed questions related to the average variance extracted of the scale, which was lower than expected. Thus, we conclude that the current findings provide validity evidence to the application of the HADS with Brazilian adolescents for clinical or research purposes.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Faro,André, Fernandes de Araújo,Ludgleydson, Carneiro Maciel,Silvana, Souza de Lima,Tiago Jessé, Cunha de Souza,Luana Elayne
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Facultad de Psicología - Universidad Católica del Uruguay. 2021
Online Access:http://www.scielo.edu.uy/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1688-42212021000201203
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