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Validation of the K6 and its depression and anxiety subscales for detecting nonspecific psychological distress and need for treatment

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Abstract

The present study sought to validate cutoff scores for the K6 denoting clinically significant nonspecific psychological distress and need for treatment. One thousand sixty (1060) adults (M age = 36.27) participated online via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, and completed the K6, IPIP-NEO-120, and demographic information. Results revealed that a two-factor solution (Depression and Anxiety) for the K6 fit data statistically significantly better than a single-factor model. Results also revealed good concurrent validity for the K6 and its two identified subscales: K6-Dep and K6-Anx. Cutoff scores denoting clinically significant distress and need for treatment for the K6 (10), K6-Dep (4) and K6-Anx (4) were identified and each yielded total classification accuracy of approximately 71%. The findings of the present study suggested that the K6 and its two subscales may have clinical utility in discerning between those who are experiencing enough psychological distress to currently need psychological treatment and those who have never received treatment. Future research should validate the K6’ subscales against diagnostic measures of depressive and anxious disorders, and compare them to other epidemiological measures of psychological distress and need for treatment with appropriate methodological considerations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Saint Louis University, 3700 Lindell Blvd, Suite 1200, St. Louis, MO, 63108, USA

    John W. Lace, Alex F. Grant & Paul J. Handal

  2. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA

    Zachary C. Merz

  3. University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA

    Natalie A. Emmert

  4. Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA

    Katherine L. Zane

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  1. John W. Lace
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Lace, J.W., Merz, Z.C., Grant, A.F. et al. Validation of the K6 and its depression and anxiety subscales for detecting nonspecific psychological distress and need for treatment. Curr Psychol 39, 1552–1561 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-9846-2

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