Abstract
BackgroundThe age of onset for most mental disorders is typically young adulthood, and the university setting is an important one for addressing mental health. The University Personality Inventory (UPI), which was developed to detect mental health problems in university students, is widely used for screening in Japan. However, there have been limited reports on the factor structure of the UPI based on a statistical test for binary indicators. The objective of this study was to assess the factor structure of the UPI in Japanese medical students.MethodsThis study examined the factor structure of the UPI in a sample of 1185 Japanese medical students at the time of university admission. The students were divided into subgroup A (n = 589) and subgroup B (n = 596) according to their year of university admission. Based on tetrachoric correlation coefficients, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with promax rotation was applied to explore the dimensions of the inventory in subgroup A. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was then conducted to verify the dimensions in subgroup B.ResultsThe EFA with categorical variables yielded four factors in subgroup A. These factors, accounting for 48.9% of the variance, were labeled “Depression and Irritability”, “Anxiety and Persecutory Belief”, “Physical Symptoms”, and “Dependence”. The new four-factor structure showed good fit, and traditional factor structures previously reported were replicated via CFA. The internal consistency reliability was good for the overall UPI scale (alpha = 0.97) and for its four new factors (alpha = 0.83–0.91).ConclusionsThe UPI is a valid and reliable measure that can be used to assess symptoms across four dimensions of mental health in university settings. These findings offer a starting point for the detection of individuals with mental health problems.
Highlights
The age of onset for most mental disorders is typically young adulthood, and the university setting is an important one for addressing mental health
There have been limited reports on the factor structure of the University Personality Inventory (UPI) based on a statistical test for binary indicators [11, 17]
GFI goodness of fit index, AGFI adjusted goodness of fit index, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) root mean square error of approximatin, CFI comparative fit index overall UPI indicated that a total score of this scale can be used as a global indicator of psychological distress
Summary
The age of onset for most mental disorders is typically young adulthood, and the university setting is an important one for addressing mental health. The University Personality Inventory (UPI), which was developed to detect mental health problems in university students, is widely used for screening in Japan. There have been limited reports on the factor structure of the UPI based on a statistical test for binary indicators. The objective of this study was to assess the factor structure of the UPI in Japanese medical students. The age of onset for most mental disorders is typically young adulthood [1]. In Japan, more than half of young adults receive postsecondary education [2], and universities are an important setting for addressing mental. Sugawara et al BMC Psychology (2020) 8:103 Item Factor 1 Poor appetite − 0.056.
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