Psychometric Properties and Cross-Cultural Invariance of the Beck Depression Inventory-II and Beck Anxiety Inventory among a Representative Sample of Spanish, Portuguese, and Brazilian Undergraduate Students

Rodrigo Leão Ferreira do Nascimento, Fernando Fajardo-Bullon, Eduardo Santos, J. Landeira-Fernandez and Luis Anunciação ()
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Rodrigo Leão Ferreira do Nascimento: Department of Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rio de Janeiro 22453-900, Brazil
Fernando Fajardo-Bullon: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Extremadura, 06006 Badajoz, Spain
Eduardo Santos: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3004-531 Coimbra, Portugal
J. Landeira-Fernandez: Department of Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rio de Janeiro 22453-900, Brazil
Luis Anunciação: Department of Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rio de Janeiro 22453-900, Brazil

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 11, 1-12

Abstract: Clinical psychologists often use the Beck Depression Inventory, 2nd edition (BDI-II), and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) to aid in the diagnosis of mental health issues and verify the effectiveness of treatments. Despite this common practice, studies that implement a cross-cultural design to check psychometric properties and the invariance of these scales are still scarce in the literature, which can lead to biased results that prevent comparisons among different groups. The present study investigated the internal structure of both tools and their level of invariance. From a representative sample of undergraduate students from Spain ( n = 1216), Portugal ( n = 426), and Brazil ( n = 315), Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis were performed. The results revealed suitable fit indices for the two-factor structure of the BDI-II and BAI, assessed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis procedures. Additionally, the two-factor model of the BDI-II reached invariant properties at three levels, whereas the structural model of the BAI did not. Altogether, these results suggest using the BDI-II in this group in these three countries and imply that BAI scores should be interpreted cautiously.

Keywords: measurement invariance; depression; anxiety; Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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