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Assessment and Psychometric Properties of the 21-Item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) among Portuguese Higher Education Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused substantial disruptions in the lives of higher education students, with detrimental repercussions for academic performance and overall mental health. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms among Portuguese higher ed...

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Autores principales: Laranjeira, Carlos, Querido, Ana, Sousa, Pedro, Dixe, Maria Anjos
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10670895/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37998067
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13110177
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author Laranjeira, Carlos
Querido, Ana
Sousa, Pedro
Dixe, Maria Anjos
author_facet Laranjeira, Carlos
Querido, Ana
Sousa, Pedro
Dixe, Maria Anjos
author_sort Laranjeira, Carlos
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic has caused substantial disruptions in the lives of higher education students, with detrimental repercussions for academic performance and overall mental health. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms among Portuguese higher education students during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic and investigate DASS-21’s psychometric characteristics and whether it functions effectively during a pandemic. A convenience sampling procedure was used to recruit 1522 participants (75.1% women and 79.2% undergraduate students) for this cross-sectional research. Participants completed an e-survey created using DASS-21. The results revealed a considerable prevalence of symptoms of depression [≥10] (N = 434, 28.5%), anxiety [≥7] (N = 551, 36.2%), and stress [≥11] (N = 544, 35.7%). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed the scale’s three-factor structure, which matched the three DASS-21 subscales. Subsequently, the heterotrait–monotrait (HTMT) correlation ratio evaluated the scale’s discriminant validity, which was relatively good. Cronbach’s alpha measured the internal consistency of the DASS subscales, which was excellent (Cronbach’s α > 0.90). DASS-21 was shown to be a reliable and appropriate measure for assessing students’ mental health. Furthermore, DASS-21 is recommended for use by academics and healthcare professionals in measuring students’ psychological distress. Further validation studies of this scale are needed with larger and more representative samples.
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spelling pubmed-106708952023-11-06 Assessment and Psychometric Properties of the 21-Item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) among Portuguese Higher Education Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic Laranjeira, Carlos Querido, Ana Sousa, Pedro Dixe, Maria Anjos Eur J Investig Health Psychol Educ Article The COVID-19 pandemic has caused substantial disruptions in the lives of higher education students, with detrimental repercussions for academic performance and overall mental health. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms among Portuguese higher education students during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic and investigate DASS-21’s psychometric characteristics and whether it functions effectively during a pandemic. A convenience sampling procedure was used to recruit 1522 participants (75.1% women and 79.2% undergraduate students) for this cross-sectional research. Participants completed an e-survey created using DASS-21. The results revealed a considerable prevalence of symptoms of depression [≥10] (N = 434, 28.5%), anxiety [≥7] (N = 551, 36.2%), and stress [≥11] (N = 544, 35.7%). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed the scale’s three-factor structure, which matched the three DASS-21 subscales. Subsequently, the heterotrait–monotrait (HTMT) correlation ratio evaluated the scale’s discriminant validity, which was relatively good. Cronbach’s alpha measured the internal consistency of the DASS subscales, which was excellent (Cronbach’s α > 0.90). DASS-21 was shown to be a reliable and appropriate measure for assessing students’ mental health. Furthermore, DASS-21 is recommended for use by academics and healthcare professionals in measuring students’ psychological distress. Further validation studies of this scale are needed with larger and more representative samples. MDPI 2023-11-06 /pmc/articles/PMC10670895/ /pubmed/37998067 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13110177 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Laranjeira, Carlos
Querido, Ana
Sousa, Pedro
Dixe, Maria Anjos
Assessment and Psychometric Properties of the 21-Item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) among Portuguese Higher Education Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Assessment and Psychometric Properties of the 21-Item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) among Portuguese Higher Education Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Assessment and Psychometric Properties of the 21-Item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) among Portuguese Higher Education Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Assessment and Psychometric Properties of the 21-Item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) among Portuguese Higher Education Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Assessment and Psychometric Properties of the 21-Item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) among Portuguese Higher Education Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Assessment and Psychometric Properties of the 21-Item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) among Portuguese Higher Education Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort assessment and psychometric properties of the 21-item depression anxiety stress scale (dass-21) among portuguese higher education students during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10670895/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37998067
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13110177
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