Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Stagnation Scale—A Traditional Chinese Medicine Construct Operationalized for Mental Health Practice

BACKGROUND: Traditional Chinese medicine stagnation (“yu”) syndrome is characterized by a cluster of mind/body obstruction-like symptoms. Previous studies have operationalized the concept as a psychological construct through scale development, producing a three-factor 16-item inventory with good psychometric properties. PURPOSE: The study aimed to further validate the Stagnation Scale by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and examine self-appraisal of stagnation as an illness. METHOD: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted on a random community sample of 755 adults recruited by cluster sampling in Hong Kong. RESULTS: CFA revealed a good fit of the three-factor model (CFI = .95; RMSEA = .077; SRMR = .043). ROC analysis suggested a cutoff score at 50 on stagnation total score for predicting self-appraisal of an illness condition, with false positive and negative rates at 25.8% and 23.3%, respectively. Overall, 6.2% participants self-appraised to suffer stagnation symptoms to a degree of an illness, and for it, 1.9% participants intended to seek treatment. Stagnation showed positive correlations with physical distress, depression, and anxiety (r = .59–.76, p < .01) and negative correlation with age (r = −.22, p < .01). CONCLUSION: The Stagnation Scale appeared to be robust in factorial and construct validity. With prevalence of illness by self-appraisal at 6.2% and intention for treatment at 1.9%, stagnation is a fairly common condition associated with treatment-seeking behaviors.