Abstract

DAMASIO, Bruno Figueiredo; MACHADO, Wagner de Lara  and  SILVA, Joilson Pereira da. Factorial structure of General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in a sample of school teachers. Aval. psicol. [online]. 2011, vol.10, n.1, pp. 99-105. ISSN 1677-0471.

The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) is one of the most used instruments in psychological health assessment. However, there is no consensus about its factor structure. This study aimed to investigate the factor structure of GHQ-12. The study included 517 teachers from 57 public and private schools, averaging 36.5 years of age (DP=10.34), being 66.3% women. Exploratory factor analysis (n=203) demonstrated the existence of two oblique factors, titled Depression and Self-efficacy. Confirmatory factor analysis (n=314) compared the model fit indexes of the exploratory and singlefactor models. The two-dimensional solution showed better fit indexes (χ²/gl=2.43, AGFI=0.90, CFI=0.91, RMSEA=0.068, CAIC=297.98) compared to the single-factor structure. The internal consistence of the factors Depression and Self-efficacy ranged from 0.82 to 0.80 and from 0.66 to 0.63, respectively. It is suggested further studies comparing different factorial solutions of the instrument in the search for a generalizable GHQ-12 factor structure.

Keywords : General Health Questionnaire; GHQ-12; Mental health; Psychological Well-Being; Confirmatory Factor Analysis.

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