Introduction: Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) is a 10‐item screening tool designed for nonspecific psychological distress. The current study aims to identify a best‐fitting factor structure of the K10, and to test its cross‐gender measurement invariance based on the structure.Methods: Using convenience sampling, we included 339 (n = 192 for boys and 135 for girls) children of Chinese rural‐to‐urban migrant workers in Hangzhou, China.Results: Confirmatory factor analysis for ordered‐categorical measures revealed a two‐factor structure as the best‐fitting model, in which five items (hopeless, depressed, effort, severely depressed, and worthless) loaded on depression and the other five items loaded on anxiety (tired, nervous, severely nervous, restless, and severely restless). The model held at different levels of the measurement invariance testing, that is, full measurement invariance was not rejected in our sample, suggesting that gender differences as assessed with K10 reflect true differences. Structural invariance testing showed that girls in our sample showed significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety than boys.Conclusion: These findings support that the K10 is suitable for gender‐comparative research among children of Chinese migrant workers. Using the K10 as a screening tool among this population should be promoted. Limitations and directions for future research were discussed.
3 April 2018 in Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment
School bullying and cyberbullying have been linked to suicidal behaviors through depression and alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other drug use. However, how these associations may differ across racial/ethnic groups remains relatively unknown. Using data from the 2015 California Youth Risk Behavior Survey, this study aims to examine two questions in different racial/ethnic subgroups: (1) Does bullying affect suicide? and (2) Does bullying have an indirect effect on suicide through depression and use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other drugs? The sample consisted of 1,765 Californian youth attending grades 9–12. Logistic regression analyses indicate that being bullied is associated with increased odds of suicide across all racial/ethnic groups; depression mediates the effect of bullying on suicide for all racial/ethnic groups; alcohol use mediates the effect only for Hispanic youth; other drug use mediates the effect only for White youth; marijuana and tobacco use have no mediating role. These findings suggest that bullying may lead to suicide through different risk behaviors for youths of different racial/ethnic groups. Professionals who work with bullied youths need to treat depression more effectively to prevent suicide in service planning and provision. They also need to be aware of the racial/ethnic differences in the risk behaviors intercorrelated with bullying and suicide and provide appropriate treatment to the youth of specific race/ethnicity.
This study examined the psychometric properties of the Job Burnout Scale among Social Service Workers (JBSSW). The JBSSW was administered among 248 social service workers employed in governmental and nonprofit social service agencies. Findings show that that this scale has three independent dimensions: person-related burnout, work-related burnout, and agency-related burnout. All three dimensions have good reliability and construct validity. Work-related burnout and agencyrelated burnout also have good concurrent validity. This scale may be used by social service agencies, researchers, and practitioners to gauge staff burnout and alleviate it by changing the interactions between individuals, the nature of their work, and the agency environment.