ArticleFrontiers in psychology2022
Sex Differences in Depression and Anxiety Symptoms: Measurement Invariance, Prevalence, and Symptom Heterogeneity Among University Students in South Africa.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Gender differences in the prevalence of anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder and associated factors among adults in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Depression and anxiety symptoms among Kenyan adolescents: psychometric validation, prevalence, network analysis, and psychosocial determinants.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Article
- Trauma exposure as a predictor of general health outcomes and trauma-related beliefs among older adults living in an adverse environment.Aging & mental health · 2025Article
- Heritability of generalized anxiety stability: a longitudinal twin study among young adults.Psychological medicine · 2025Article
- Artificial intelligence-assisted psychological intervention mechanisms for university students in the context of new media technologies: an analysis based on data from the national institute of mental health.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Evaluating the Insomnia Severity Index among South African first responders: evidence from classical test theory, Rasch, and Mokken analyses.Frontiers in sleep · 2025Article
- Being Cynical Is Bad for Your Wellbeing: A Structural Equation Model of the Relationship Between Cynicism and Mental Health in First Responders in South Africa.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Depression and Anxiety of Portuguese University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study about Prevalence and Associated Factors.Depression and anxiety · 2024Article
- Mental distress, food insecurity and university student dropout during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020: evidence from South Africa.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Symptoms of depression and anxiety in Chinese adolescents: heterogeneity and associations with executive function.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- Lifestyle Habits Determinants of Health-Related Quality of Life in Moroccan College Students.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Measuring Positive Mental Health and Depression in Africa: A Variable-Based and Person-Centred Analysis of the Dual-Continua Model.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Adequate measurement is an essential component of the assessment of mental health disorders and symptoms such as depression and anxiety. The present study investigated sex-specific differences in the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7). This comprehensive cross-sectional design study pursued four objectives: measurement invariance of PHQ-9 and GAD-7 between male and female; depression and anxiety prevalence differences; cross-sex differences in the relationship between depression and anxiety; and a comparison of symptom heterogeneity. A sample of 1966 (male = 592; female = 1374; mean age = 21 years) students from South Africa completed the PHQ-9 and the GAD-7. Data analyses for measurement invariance, latent class analysis, inter-variable correlations and group comparisons were conducted in Mplus. The two-dimensional PHQ-9 achieved scalar invariance, while the GAD-7 yielded metric invariance. The somatic and non-somatic latent dimensions of depression were compared and showed no significant difference between male and female groups. The positive relationship between depression and anxiety was also not significantly different between the two groups. While the PHQ-9 symptoms formed three classes in the male group, and four classes in the female group, the GAD-7 had the same number of classes (three) and a similar pattern between the two groups. These findings hold implications for the measurement, assessment and understanding of symptom manifestation and distribution, as well as the treatment of depression and anxiety in South Africa.
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