Brief Symptons Inventory psychometric properties supports the hypothesis of a general psychopathological factor

Abstract

Introduction:The existence of a general factor related to psychiatric symptoms is supported by studies using a variety of methods in both clinical and non-clinical samples. Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the replicability of the internal structure of the Brief Symptom Inventory in a large Brazilian sample. Methods: Participants were 6,427 Brazilian subjects (81% female). Mean age was 42.1 years (standard deviation [SD] = 13.6, Min = 13, Max = 80). All participants completed the online version of the Brief Symptom Inventory. This scale presents a general score (GSI) and nine specific clusters of symptoms (depression, anxiety, phobic anxiety, interpersonal sensibility, psychoticism, paranoid ideation, obsessivecompulsive behavior, hostility, and somatization symptoms). Results: Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to assess the factor structure of the BSI. The results showed that the best-fitting model was a bifactor solution and the general factor was the main dimension explaining most of the reliable variability in the data. Conclusion:The findings suggest that the BSI's internal structure was replicated in a non-clinical sample and that the general factor is the most reliable score. However, it is necessary to better understand the meaning of the general factor scores in a non-clinical sample to increase interpretability of scores.

The mental health of Brazilian healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal study

“…The internal structure has been verified for the Brazilian population. 15 A bifactor structure was replicated in Brazil and was supported by data. The study suggests that only the GSI was sufficient to explain individual variability.…”

Longitudinal invariance and validity of the Impact of Event Scale–Revised under COVID-19 pandemic in a Brazilian sample.

“…For data analysis, we computed the BSI’s GSI composed of the mean score of all items answered. The reliability of the GSI in the Brazilian version of BSI was ω = .98; ωH = .95, which indicates high reliability (Serpa et al, 2021).…”

Impacts of mental health in the sleep pattern of healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil

“…Each dimension is quantified via a Likert scale from 0 to 4, ranging from ‘not at all’ to ‘extremely’. It is designed for a minimum age of 13 years, comprehending the target audience of this study, and its internal structure was verified for the Brazilian population during the COVID-19 pandemic ( Serpa et al, 2021 ).…”