Factor Structures of General Health Questionnaire-12 Within the Number of Kins Among the Rural Residents in China

Abstract

The 12-item general health questionnaire (GHQ-12) has been extensively used with Chinese population. Yet, it has not been used from a national representative survey in rural China. The aim of this study was to examine how number of kins associated with the factor structures of the CHQ-12 among the rural residents in China. Data were obtained from the 2009 rural-to-urban migrants survey (RUMiC). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (principal component analysis with varimax rotation) was performed to identify factor structures of GHQ-12 regarding number of siblings, age ranking, and number of children. To investigate the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach’s alpha was used. Internal consistency was assessed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). In all, 32171 rural residents in China from 2009 RUMiC participated in the study. The mean age of the respondents was 37.03 ( SD = 19.21) years. The psychometric properties and factor structures of the GHQ-12 used were described. All of the fit indices in CFA models were satisfactory. The two-factor and three-factor structures gathered the satisfactory fit indexes in the part of 2009 subsamples. The rural version of the GHQ-12 was reliable measures of psychological distress among the rural residents in China with respect to number of kins. The two-and three-factor structures derived from the present sample, with good model fit in the CFA analysis, which suggested that two-and three-factor solution could be used to assess mental health of rural residents in rural China.

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