The use of the General Health Questionnaire as an indicator of mental health in occupational studies

Abstract

This paper examines the psychometric properties of an existing measure of mental health, the GHQ‐12, as revealed in three studies involving employees in an engineering firm (n = 659), recent school‐leavers (n = 647), and unemployed men (n = 92). The measure was shown to be psychometrically sound in all cases, with a Likert scoring method providing a more acceptable distribution of scores than the more commonly deployed ‘ GHQ score ’ for use in parametric statistical analyses. Scores on GHQ‐12 were found to be much higher (indicating lower mental health) for those who were unemployed, higher for women than for men in one sample, and unrelated to age, job level and marital status.

Work- and family-related variables, work–family conflict and women's well-being: some observations

“…Both measures have been validated and have been shown to have good psychometric properties (Banks, 1983;Banks et al, 1980). Cronbach values for the present sample were 0.79 for job satisfaction and 0.84 for distress symptoms.…”

The Role of Acceptance and Job Control in Mental Health, Job Satisfaction, and Work Performance.

“…The General Health Questionnaire-12 is a 12-item scale typically used as a measure of general mental health (McDowell & Newell, 1996). Here the Likert method of scoring was used (see Banks et al, 1980) in which each item (e.g., "Have you recently . .…”

A randomised worksite comparison of acceptance and commitment therapy and stress inoculation training

“…The GHQ-12 was used to measure general psychological distress. This 12-item scale has been widely used as an outcome in occupational health research and has good psychometric properties (Banks et al, 1980;Goldberg & Williams, 1988;Hardy et al, 2003).…”