Faculty, Staff and Student Publications
Measuring Anxiety Among Latino Immigrant Populations: Within-Country and Between-Country Comparisons
Publication Date
10-1-2024
Journal
Assessment
Abstract
Anxiety is the most prevalent mental health disorder among adults worldwide. Given its increased prevalence among migrants due to their marginalized position in the societies where they reside, psychometric evaluations of anxiety measures such as the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) are needed for use with migrants. The present study is the first attempt to compare the structure of GAD-7 scores for (a) different Latino groups in the same country and (b) the same Latino group in two different countries. Using three samples of Mexican and Venezuelan migrants (total N = 933), we provide reliability and validity evidence of the GAD-7 for use with adult Latino migrants. Utilizing confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory, we demonstrate that the GAD-7 is internally consistent, possesses a strong single-factor structure, and generates scores with equivalent psychometric properties. GAD-7 is appropriate for use with Mexican and Venezuelan migrants across differing gender groups and education levels.
Keywords
Humans, Female, Male, Adult, Psychometrics, Mexico, Hispanic or Latino, Venezuela, Emigrants and Immigrants, Middle Aged, Reproducibility of Results, Anxiety Disorders, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Young Adult, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Adolescent
DOI
10.1177/10731911231223715
PMID
38217446
PMCID
PMC11409562
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
1-13-2024
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Post-print
Published Open-Access
yes
