Validation and normalization of the General Health Questionnaire 30 in parents with primary school children in China

Abstract

Objectives: Parenting can be a stressful experience. Higher levels of parenting stress are predictive of parents' negative appraisal of children's behavior, the use of physical discipline, and poor child outcomes across a variety of domains. Assessment of parenting depression is needed in China. This study aims to standardize the Chinese version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30) for parents of primary school children. Method: Stratified randomly selected parents of primary school children were selected from the cities of Nanjing and Shenyang in China. The Chinese version of the General Health Questionnaire 30 was administered to 7615 parents of primary school students aged between 8 and 12 years. A high response rate was achieved, with 6672 parents (88%) responding to the survey. Results: Exploratory factor analysis with a 5-factor solution showed that 5 factors were extracted from the scale, namely, depression, anxiety, inadequate coping, social dysfunctioning, and sleep disturbance. The 5-factor structures were confirmed by using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Overall, the 5-factor structure had a high level of reliability for each individual dimension. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the 5-factor structure abstracted from this study had a good model fit. Conclusions: The 5-factor structure derived from the present sample of parents, with good model fit in the CFA analysis, suggests that a 5-factor solution can be used to assess parent psychopathological symptoms in mainland Chinese parents of primary school children. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.