DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONAL DISTTRESS SCALE FOR ADOLESCENTS

Objective: Development of emotional distress scale for adolescents in Urdu language. Study Design: Cross sectional survey. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Psychology, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, from Feb to Nov 2020. Methodology: Scale was based on Beck Cognitive Theory with 3 main factors of Depression, Anxiety and stress and 9 sub factors of it. Initial item pool was developed of 180 items with the help of DSM-5, four focus group and literature review was carried out. One hundred and seventy four out of 180 items were selected after expert evaluation. 162 items were retained after pilot study. Moreover data was collected by using self-reported questionnaire on 900 adolescents from the community of district Gujrat and district Sargodha. For the analysis of data reliability, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used. Results: After final administration of 162 items 49 items were retained. The final administration of 49 items with written informed consent was handed over to 900 participants. The model fit showed a p-value of 0.000 that established the structure validity and significance of the items to its subscales. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy (KMO) Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Pallant showed the acceptable value above 0.6 that showed the sampling adequacy of Emotional Distress Scale. After all analysis 49 items were selected. Conclusion: Emotional distress scale is reliable indigenous scale for measuring emotional distress of adolescents with 3 main and 9 sub factors.