ArticleCanadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie2019
The Psychometric Properties of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6) in an Epidemiological Sample of Canadian Youth.
Article in Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Consistency as the Currency in Psychological Measures: A Reliability Generalization Meta-Analysis of Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K-10 and K-6).Depression and anxiety · 2024Pooled it
- Acceptability, Feasibility, and Outcome Responsiveness of the Joint Effort Mobile App for Promoting Lower-Risk Cannabis Use Among Young Adults: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2026Trial
- Structural validity and measurement invariance of the Japanese version of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6): an item response theory analysis.Annals of medicine · 2026Article
- The Kessler 6 psychological distress scale (K6) in swedish: a psychometric study of reliability, factor structure and measurement invariance in a large population-based sample.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Adolescent cannabis use and psychological distress from 2013 to 2023: A population-based study in Ontario, Canada.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- The impact of physical activity on psychological distress in young people: An analysis of longitudinal data from the Millennium Cohort Study using causal machine learning.JCPP advances · 2026Article
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- Characterizing unmet mental health need and barriers to seeking services among youth.Cogent mental health · 2026Article
- Mental health service use among Black adolescents in Ontario by sex and distress level: a cross-sectional study.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2025Article
- Article
- Changes in Psychological Distress in Children With Physical Illness and Their Parents During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Child: care, health and development · 2025Article
- Cultural stigma, psychological distress and help-seeking: Moderating role of self-esteem and self-stigma in Lebanon.PloS one · 2025Article
- Time in the United States and walking for physical activity among Black Californians: Findings from the California Health Interview Survey (2012-2017).Journal of migration and health · 2025Article
- Examining temporal trends in psychological distress and the co-occurrence of common substance use in a population-based sample of grade 7-12 students from 2013 to 2019.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2024Article
- Patient-reported outcomes and experiences of migrants enrolled in a multidisciplinary HIV clinic with rapid, free, and onsite treatment dispensation: the 'ASAP' study.AIDS research and therapy · 2024Article
- Approaches for measuring cumulative childhood adversity: A study of youth from 5 sub-Saharan African countries.Child abuse & neglect · 2024Article
- A review of US nationally representative data sources of child and adolescent anxiety.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2024Review
- Association between childhood adversities and premature and potentially avoidable mortality in adulthood: a population-based study.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Self-Identification of Mental Health Problems Among Young Adults Experiencing Homelessness.Community mental health journal · 2023Article
- Study protocol of the Our Futures Vaping Trial: a cluster randomised controlled trial of a school-based eHealth intervention to prevent e-cigarette use among adolescents.BMC public health · 2023Article
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1 author.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThis study (1) describes the distribution of Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6) scores in an epidemiological sample of youth, (2) reports its item correlations and internal consistency reliability, (3) tests for measurement invariance by age (youth vs. adults) and sex, and (4) examines its predictive power for past-year psychiatric disorders.
methodYouth aged 15 to 19 years (
resultsK6 scores showed a J-shaped distribution, with >50% of youth having scores ≤3. Item and total scores were higher for females versus males. Item correlations were robust (0.31-0.78) and internal consistency was high (α = 0.86). Full measurement invariance was demonstrated between youth and adults, as well as between male and female youth. The K6 was a strong predictor of major depressive episode (AUC = 0.848), generalized anxiety disorder (AUC = 0.847), and bipolar disorder (AUC = 0.853).
conclusionsThe K6 is a valid and reliable measure of psychological distress among youth. Its brevity and robust predictive power for psychiatric disorder confirm its utility in clinical and community settings to identify youth needing comprehensive psychiatric assessment.
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