Abstract

VARELA, Ana; PEREIRA, Anabela; PEREIRA, Ariana  and  SANTOS, José Carlos. Psychological distress: contributes for the portuguese adaption of the sq-48. Psic., Saúde & Doenças [online]. 2017, vol.18, n.2, pp.278-286. ISSN 1645-0086.  https://doi.org/10.15309/17psd180201.

Recently, it has been emphasized the importance of psychological distress in the impact of an individual's health, quality of life and psychopathology. The present research's main goal is to contribute for its study by adapting the Symptom-Questionnaire (SQ-48) to the Portuguese population, a questionnaire for the evaluation of psychological distress which includes both negative and positive constructs assessed by nine subscales: Mood, Anxiety, Somatization, Agoraphobia, Aggression, Cognitive Problems, Social Phobia, Work Functioning and Vitality/Optimism. We used a sample of 758 academic students (81,7% female) with ages ranging from 17 to 43 years old (M=20,7; SD=2,8). Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were conducted in order to investigate SQ-48's factorial structure and internal consistency and validity were also studied. The CFA results demonstrate satisfactory adjustment indices. The internal consistency was evaluated by Cronbach's alpha and satisfactory results were obtained for the nine subscales, with variations from 0,626 to 0,870. In general, the SQ-48's subscales were significantly associated and the results also support good convergent validity. The final instrument and its psychometric properties showed some differences in comparison to the instrument of the original study and the results reported raise some important questions which are discussed in a sustained way. The results validate the SQ-48 as a multidimensional and consistent tool for the evaluation of psychological distress, with items properly adequate to the measurement of the subjacent constructs. Important considerations for future investigations are made.

Keywords : psychological distress; psychological assessment; symptom questionnaire; instrument adaptation; confirmatory factor analysis.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )