Cross-sectional psychometric validation, convergent validity, and measurement invariance of the DASS-21 in Mexican university students.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To evaluate the factor structure, reliability, and gender invariance of the DASS-21, and to examine convergent/criterion-related evidence with coping and functional impairment.

Design

Cross-sectional, single-site psychometric validation in first-year undergraduates at a private Mexican university; multigroup CFA with ordinal/WLSMV; proctored digital administration; convergent/criterion analyses and known-groups tests.

Methods

First-year students (N=1,251) completed the DASS-21 and an adapted Proactive Coping Inventory. Models estimated from polychoric correlations (WLSMV) compared a correlated three-factor solution, a second-order model, and a bifactor model; ESEM served as a robustness check. Gender invariance (women/men) followed a configural-metric

SUBMITTER: Silva Castillo LH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12719431 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature