Factorial Structure, Internal Consistency, and Measurement Invariance of a Self-Report Scale for Assessing Mental Health Problems in Adults
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22235/cp.v19i2.4686Keywords:
mental health, psychological assessment, psychometric properties, measurement invariance, Personal Wellbeing IndexAbstract
Background: In Latin America, there is a lack of brief, valid, and culturally appropriate instruments for assessing adult mental health, which may hinder early detection and primary access to interventions. Objective: This aim of this study was to adapt and validate a self-report scale for adults derived from the Adolescent Self-Report (ADA), designed to assess psychopathological symptoms and personal strengths. Method: A total of 9,885 Uruguayan adults (M = 41.5 years; 62.7% women) participated by completing the abbreviated version of the instrument, the ADAL (Adult version of the ADA), along with the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI-A). Confirmatory factor analyses, reliability assessments, measurement invariance tests by gender, age, and socioeconomic status, and correlational analyses with wellbeing and sociodemographic variables were conducted. Results: The six-factor model showed good fit (CFI = .951, TLI = .944, RMSEA = .031) and adequate reliability (ordinal α = .71–.90). Configural, metric, and scalar invariance were confirmed across gender, age, and socioeconomic groups. Correlations with wellbeing provided evidence of validity based on relations with external variables.
Conclusions: The ADAL is a brief, valid, and reliable instrument for assessing adult mental health, with potential applications in clinical, community, and research settings within Spanish-speaking populations.
Downloads
References
Achenbach, T. M. (1978). The child behavior profile: I. Boys aged 6–11. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46(3), 478-488. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.46.3.478
Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2001). Manual for the ASEBA school-age forms & profiles. University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families.
Achenbach, T. M., Ivanova, M. Y., & Rescorla, L. A. (2017). Empirically based assessment and taxonomy of psychopathology for ages 1½-90+ years: Developmental, multi-informant, and multicultural findings. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 79, 4-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2017.03.006
American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association & National Council on Measurement in Education. (2014). Standards for educational and psychological testing. American Educational Research Association.
Anselmi, A., Cracco, C., Estradé, A., Solmi, M., & Correll, C. U. (2024). Impactos de la pandemia de covid-19 sobre el bienestar y la salud mental de adultos uruguayos. Ciencias Psicológicas, 18(2), e-4059. https://doi.org/10.22235/cp.v18i2.4059
Arnett J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood. A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. The American Psychologist, 55(5), 469-480. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.5.469
Ato, M., López, J. J., & Benavente, A. (2013). Un sistema de clasificación de los diseños de investigación en psicología. Anales de Psicología, 29(3), 1038-1059. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.29.3.178511
Brown, T. A. (2015). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research (2a ed.). The Guilford Press.
Carretero-Dios, H., & Pérez, C. (2005). Normas para el desarrollo y revisión de estudios instrumentales. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 5(3), 521-551.
Castillo, M., & Ortuño, V. (2023). Estudio psicométrico del Cuestionario de Capacidades y Dificultades (SDQ) para niños de 2 a 4 años en Uruguay. Revista de Psicología, 19(37), 7-22. https://doi.org/10.46553/RPSI.19.37.2023.p7-22
Charles, S. T., & Carstensen, L. L. (2010). Social and emotional aging. Annual Review of Psychology, 61, 383-409. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100448
Chen, F. F. (2007). Sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 14(3), 464-504. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510701301834
Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9(2), 233-255. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328007SEM0902_5
Clark, L. A., & Watson, D. (1995). Constructing validity: Basic issues in objective scale development. Psychological Assessment, 7(3), 309-319. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.7.3.309
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Collier Villaume, S., Chen, S., & Adam, E. K. (2023). Age disparities in prevalence of anxiety and depression among US adults during the covid-19 pandemic. JAMA network open, 6(11). https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.45073
Costa-Ball, C. D., Cracco, C., Cuadro, A., & López García, J. J. (2023). Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): An update of the literature and instrumental study with schoolchildren. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología, 55, 140-148. https://doi.org/10.14349/rlp.2023.v55.16
Cummins, R. A., Eckersley, R., Pallant, J., Van Vugt, J., & Misajon, R. (2003). Developing a national index of subjective wellbeing: The Australian Unity wellbeing index. Social Indicators Research, 64, 159-190. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024704320683
Cummins, R. A., Li, N., Wooden, M., & Stokes, M. (2014). A demonstration of set-points for subjective wellbeing. Journal of Happiness Studies: An Interdisciplinary Forum on Subjective Well-Being, 15(1), 183-206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9444-9
Daset, L. R., Fernández-Pintos, M. E., Costa-Ball, D., López-Soler, C., & Vanderplasschen, W. (2015). Desarrollo y validación del Autoinforme de Adolescentes: ADA. Ciencias Psicológicas, 9(1), 85-104. https://doi.org/10.22235/cp.v9i1.169
Daset, L. R., Fernández, M. E., Costa-Ball, D., Peirano, N., Castelluccio, L., & López-Soler, C. (2021). Autoinforme de Adolescentes (ADA): Manual de aplicación, corrección e interpretación. Universidad Católica del Uruguay. https://doi.org/10.22235/ada2021
Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Tay, L. (2018). Advances in subjective well-being research. Nature Human Behaviour, 2(4), 253-260. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0307-6
Dyussenbayev, A. (2017). Age periods of human life. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 4(6). https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.46.2924
Enríquez, S. I. R., García, P. J. J., Vega, H. B., & Luján, J. C. B. (2023). Medición del bienestar psicológico mediante la utilización de cuestionarios de autorreporte. Una revisión sistemática. Psicología y Salud, 33(1), 209-216. https://doi.org/10.25009/pys.v33i1.2784
Fernández, M. E., Castelluccio, L., & Cummins, R. A. (2021). Examining the factor structure of the Personal Well-Being Index for Uruguayan schoolgoing adolescents. Journal of Well-Being Assessment, 4(4), 539-554. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41543-021-00047-3
Fernández, M. E., Castelluccio, L., Sanjurjo, I., & Daset, L. (2024). Adolescent and parental risk perception of alcohol and marijuana use and well-being of adolescents in Uruguay. En M. Florence, W. Vanderplasschen, M. Yu, J. De Maeyer, & S. Savahl (Eds.), Handbook of Addiction, Recovery and Quality of Life: Cross-cutting Perspectives from Around the Globe (pp. 435-446). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-65873-0_30
Fernández, M. E., Van Damme, L., De Pauw, S., Costa-Ball, D., Daset, L., & Vanderplasschen, W. (2018). The moderating role of age and gender differences in the relation between subjective well-being, psychopathology and substance use in Uruguayan adolescents. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicopatología Fundamental, 21(3), 486-510. https://doi.org/10.1590/1415-4714.2018v21n3p486.5
Ferrando, P. J., & Lorenzo-Seva, U. (2016). A note on improving EAP trait estimation in oblique factor-analytic and item response theory models. Psicológica, 37(2), 235-247. https://www.uv.es/revispsi/articulos2.16/7Ferrando.pdf
Ferrando, P. J., Lorenzo-Seva, U., Hernández-Dorado, A., & Muñiz, J. (2022). Decálogo para el análisis factorial de los ítems de un test. Psicothema, 34(1), 7-17. https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2021.456
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39-50. https://doi.org/10.2307/3151312
Gadermann, A., Guhn, M., & Zumbo, B. D. (2014). Ordinal Alpha. En A. C. Michalos (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_2025
Gibson, T. O., Jr., Morrow, J. A., & Rocconi, L. M. (2020). A modernized heuristic approach to robust exploratory factor analysis. The Quantitative Methods for Psychology, 16(4), 295-307. https://doi.org/10.20982/tqmp.16.4.p295
Cummins, R. A. (Ed.). (2024). Personal Wellbeing Index Adult - Manual (6a ed., Version 2). International Wellbeing Group. https://www.acqol.com.au/uploads/pwi-a/pwi-a-english.pdf
Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2019). Multivariate data analysis (8a ed.). Cengage Learning.
Harms, P. D., Brady, L., Wood, D., & Silard, A. (2018). Resilience and well-being. En E. Diener, S. Oishi, & L. Tay (Eds.), Handbook of well-being (pp.642-653). DEF Publishers.
Hedley, D., Hayward, S. M., Denney, K., Uljarević, M., Bury, S., Sahin, E., Brown, C. M., Clapperton, A., Dissanayake, C., Robinson, J., Trollor, J., & Stokes, M. A. (2021). The association between covid-19, personal wellbeing, depression, and suicide risk factors in Australian autistic adults. Autism Research: Official Journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 14(12), 2663-2676. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2614
Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2015). A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(1), 115-135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8
Hernández, A., Hidalgo, M. D., Hambleton, R. K., & Gómez-Benito, J. (2020). International Test Commission guidelines for test adaptation: A criterion checklist. Psicothema, 32(3), 390-398. https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2019.306
Jeyagurunathan, A., Abdin, E., Shafie, S., Vaingankar, J. A., Sambasivam, R., Zhang, Y. J., Chua, B. Y., Tan, W., Chan, C. L., & Subramaniam, M. (2025). Personal Well-Being Index (PWI) and its association with physical health, mental health and leisure activities: Results from the Health and Lifestyle Survey. Journal of Happiness Studies, 26(3), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-025-00889-1
Kayrouz, R., Karin, E., Staples, L., Dear, B., Nielssen, O., & Titov, N. (2025). A review of the 257 meta-analyses of the differences between females and males in prevalence and risk, protective factors, and treatment outcomes for mental disorder. BMC Psychiatry, 25(1), 677. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-025-06848-7
Kline, R. B. (2023). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (5a ed.). Guilford Press.
Leadbeater, B. J., Merrin, G. J., Contreras, A., & Ames, M. E. (2023). Trajectories of oppositional defiant disorder severity from adolescence to young adulthood and substance use, mental health, and behavioral problems. Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry = Journal de l'Académie canadienne de psychiatrie de l'enfant et de l'adolescent, 32(4), 224-235. https://doi.org/10.53789/ccap202332224
Lemos, S., Fidalgo, A. M., Calvo, P., & Menéndez, P. (1992). Estructura factorial de la prueba YSR y su utilidad en psicopatología infanto-juvenil. Análisis y Modificación de Conducta, 18(62), 883-905.
Lloret-Segura, S., Ferreres-Traver, A., Hernández-Baeza, A., & Tomás-Marco, I. (2014). El análisis factorial exploratorio de los ítems: Una guía práctica, revisada y actualizada. Anales de Psicología, 30(3), 1151-1169. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.30.3.199361
López Soler, C., Alcántara, M. V., Fernández, V., Castro, M., & López Pina, J. A. (2010). Características y prevalencia de los problemas de ansiedad, depresión y quejas somáticas en una muestra clínica infantil de 8 a 12 años, mediante el CBCL (Child Behavior Checklist). Anales de Psicología, 26(2), 325-334.
López-Pina, J.-A., & Veas, A. (2024). Validation of psychometric instruments with Classical Test Theory in social and health sciences: A practical guide. Anales de Psicología, 40(1), 163-170. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.583991
Lorant, V., Deliège, D., Eaton, W., Robert, A., Philippot, P., & Ansseau, M. (2003). Socioeconomic inequalities in depression: a meta-analysis. American Journal of Epidemiology, 157(2), 98-112. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwf182
Lorenzo-Seva, U. (2022). SOLOMON: A method for splitting a sample into equivalent subsamples in factor analysis. Behavior Research Methods, 54(6), 2665-2677. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01750-y
Lorenzo-Seva, U., & Ferrando, P. J. (2006). FACTOR: a computer program to fit the exploratory factor analysis model. Behavior Research Methods, 38(1), 88-91. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03192753
Lorenzo-Seva, U., & Ferrando, P. J. (2019). Robust Promin: A method for diagonally weighted factor rotation. Liberabit, 25(1), 99-106. https://doi.org/10.24265/liberabit.2019.v25n1.08
Lorenzo-Seva, U., & Ferrando, P. J. (2021). MSA: The forgotten index for identifying inappropriate items before computing exploratory item factor analysis. Methodology: European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, 17(4), 296-306. https://doi.org/10.5964/meth.7185
Machado, A. I., Bobbio, A., Arbach, K., Parra, A., Riestra, C., & Hernández-Cervantes, Q. (2021). Evidencia de estructura y consistencia interna del Inventario de Riesgo Suicida en Adolescentes (IRISA) uruguayos. Ciencias Psicológicas, 15(1), e-2214.. https://doi.org/10.22235/cp.v15i1.2214
Martínez-Moreno, A., Ibáñez-Pérez, R. J., Cavas-García, F., & Cano-Noguera, F. (2020). Older adults' gender, age and physical activity effects on anxiety, optimism, resilience and engagement. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(20), 7561. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17207561
Milfont, T. L., & Fischer, R. (2010). Testing measurement invariance across groups: Applications in cross-cultural research. International Journal of Psychological Research, 3(1), 111-130. https://doi.org/10.21500/20112084.857
Muñiz, J., & Fonseca-Pedrero, E. (2019). Diez pasos para la construcción de un test. Psicothema, 31(1), 7-16. https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2018.291
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (1998–2017). Mplus user’s guide (8a ed.). Muthén & Muthén.
Organización Mundial de la Salud. (2022a). Informe mundial sobre salud mental: Transformar la salud mental para todos. https://www.who.int/es/publications/i/item/9789240050860
Organización Mundial de la Salud. (2022b, 2 de marzo). La pandemia de covid-19 aumenta en un 25 % la prevalencia de la ansiedad y la depresión en todo el mundo. https://www.who.int/es/news/item/02-03-2022-covid-19-pandemic-triggers-25-increase-in-prevalence-of-anxiety-and-depression-worldwide
Organización Mundial de la Salud. (2022c). Plan de acción integral sobre salud mental 2013-2030 [Comprehensive mental health action plan 2013–2030]. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/364104
Organización Panamericana de la Salud. (2023). Una nueva agenda para la salud mental en la Región de las Américas: Informe de la Comisión de Alto Nivel sobre Salud Mental y covid-19. https://doi.org/10.37774/9789275327227
Otten, D., Tibubos, A. N., Schomerus, G., Brähler, E., Binder, H., Kruse, J., Ladwig, K. H., Wild, P. S., Grabe, H. J., & Beutel, M. E. (2021). Similarities and differences of mental health in women and men: A systematic review of findings in Three Large German Cohorts. Frontiers in Public Health, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.553071
Perera, M. (2018). Indicadores sociales de la niñez y la adolescencia en Uruguay (INSE 2018). Instituto Nacional de Estadística. https://www.ine.gub.uy/documents/10181/53200/INSE-2018-documento-final.pdf
Prowse, R., Sherratt, F., Abizaid, A., Gabrys, R. L., Hellemans, K. G. C., Patterson, Z. R., & McQuaid, R. J. (2021). Coping with the covid-19 pandemic: Examining gender differences in stress and mental health among university students. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.650759
Schreiber, J. B., Nora, A., Stage, F. K., Barlow, E. A., & King, J. (2006). Reporting structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis results: A review. The Journal of Educational Research, 99(6), 323-338. https://doi.org/10.3200/JOER.99.6.323-338
Soriano-Díaz, C., Moreno-Manso, J. M., García-Baamonde, M. E., Guerrero-Molina, M., & Cantillo-Cordero, P. (2022). Behavioral and emotional difficulties and personal wellbeing of adolescents in residential care. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(1), 256. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010256
Soto, C. J., John, O. P., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2011). Age differences in personality traits from 10 to 65: Big Five domains and facets in a large cross-sectional sample. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(2), 330-348. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021717
Tejada, P. A., Jaramillo, L. E., Sánchez-Pedraza, R., & Sharma, V. (2014). Revisión crítica sobre los instrumentos para la evaluación psiquiátrica en atención primaria. Revista de la Facultad de Medicina, 62(1), 101-110. https://doi.org/10.15446/revfacmed.v62n1.43759
Tomyn, A. J., & Weinberg, M. K. (2018). Resilience and subjective wellbeing: A psychometric evaluation in young Australian adults. Australian Psychologist, 53(1), 68-76. https://doi.org/10.1111/ap.12251
Verhulst, F. C., & Achenbach, T. M. (1995). Empirically based assessment and taxonomy of psychopathology: Cross-cultural applications: A review. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 4(2), 61-76. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01977734
World Health Organization. (2018). Mental health in primary care: Illusion or inclusion? https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-HIS-SDS-2018.38
Zumbo, B. D., Gadermann, A. M., & Zeisser, C. (2007). Ordinal versions of coefficients alpha and theta for Likert rating scales. Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods, 6(1), 21-29. https://doi.org/10.22237/jmasm/1177992180
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Ciencias Psicológicas
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
