Psychometric properties of the Brief Symptom Inventory support the hypothesis of a general psychopathological factor
Tipo
Artigo
Data de publicação
2022
Periódico
Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
Citações (Scopus)
5
Autores
Serpa A.L.O.
Costa D.S.
Ferreira C.M.C.
Pinheiro M.I.C.
Diaz A.P.
de Paula J.J.
Miranda D.M.
da Silva A.G.
Malloy-Diniz L.F.
Costa D.S.
Ferreira C.M.C.
Pinheiro M.I.C.
Diaz A.P.
de Paula J.J.
Miranda D.M.
da Silva A.G.
Malloy-Diniz L.F.
Orientador
Título da Revista
ISSN da Revista
Título de Volume
Membros da banca
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Resumo
© 2022, Sociedade de Psiquiatria do Rio Grande do Sul. All rights reserved.Introduction: The existence of a general factor related to psychiatric symptoms is supported by studies using a variety of methods in both clinical and non-clinical samples. Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the replicability of the internal structure of the Brief Symptom Inventory in a large Brazilian sample. Methods: Participants were 6,427 Brazilian subjects (81% female). Mean age was 42.1 years (standard deviation [SD] = 13.6, Min = 13, Max = 80). All participants completed the online version of the Brief Symptom Inventory. This scale presents a general score (GSI) and nine specific clusters of symptoms (depression, anxiety, phobic anxiety, interpersonal sensibility, psychoticism, paranoid ideation, obsessive-compulsive behavior, hostility, and somatization symptoms). Results: Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to assess the factor structure of the BSI. The results showed that the best-fitting model was a bifactor solution and the general factor was the main dimension explaining most of the reliable variability in the data. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the BSI’s internal structure was replicated in a non-clinical sample and that the general factor is the most reliable score. However, it is necessary to better understand the meaning of the general factor scores in a non-clinical sample to increase interpretability of scores.