Validity of the depression, anxiety, and stress scale (DASS-21) in a sample of Korean university students

Abstract

The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21) is the short version of a self-report measure that was originally developed to encompass the full range of symptoms of both anxiety and depression while providing maximum differentiation between the two constructs. Although evidence of the instrument’s reliability has been encouraging, no previous research has thoroughly investigated the factor structure and other features of the DASS-21 with a sample of South Korean university students. The present study examined the factor structure, measurement invariance, convergent validity, and internal consistency of the Korean version of the DASS-21 by administering it to 582 students attending a four-year university in South Korea. All participants completed the Korean version of the DASS-21 along with several other measures of psychopathology. Confirmatory factor analyses suggested that the best-fitting model had a bifactor structure, consisting of a general factor of psychological distress plus orthogonal specific factors of depression, anxiety, and stress. Multigroup analysis supported full measurement invariance across gender. The measure’s internal consistency was good, and each DASS-21 scale was moderately correlated with a measure of a similar construct, demonstrating good convergent validity. Overall, the results support the validity and factor structure of the Korean version of the DASS-21 and indicate that it is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms.