The structure of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): two meta-analytic factor analyses |
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Authors: | Timo Gnambs Thomas Staufenbiel |
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Affiliation: | 1. Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories, Bamberg, Germany;2. Institute of Psychology, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany |
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Abstract: | The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) is a popular measure of psychological distress. Despite its widespread use, an ongoing controversy pertains to its internal structure. Although the GHQ-12 was originally constructed to capture a unitary construct, empirical studies identified different factor structures. Therefore, this study examined the dimensionality of the GHQ-12 in two independent meta-analyses. The first meta-analysis used summary data published in 38 primary studies (total N?=?76,473). Meta-analytic exploratory factor analyses identified two factors formed by negatively and positively worded items. The second meta-analysis included individual responses of 410,640 participants from 84 independent samples. Meta-analytic confirmatory factor analyses corroborated the two-dimensional structure of the GHQ-12. However, bifactor modelling showed that most of the variance was explained by a general factor. Therefore, subscale scores reflected rather limited unique variance. Overall, the two meta-analyses demonstrated that the GHQ-12 is essentially unidimensional. It is not recommended to use and interpret subscale scores because they primarily reflect general mental health rather than distinct constructs. |
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Keywords: | Mental health distress factor analysis meta-analysis wording effects |
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