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Assessing Mental Health for China’s Police: Psychometric Features of the Self-Rating Depression Scale and Symptom Checklist 90-Revised

Author

Listed:
  • I-Hua Chen

    (College of Education Science, Minnan Normal University, Zhangzhou 363000, China)

  • Chung-Ying Lin

    (Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong)

  • Xia Zheng

    (Mental-Health Education Center, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330000, China)

  • Mark D. Griffiths

    (International Gaming Research Unit, Psychology Department, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG1 4FQ, UK)

Abstract

Police mental health is important because police officers usually encounter stressors that cause high levels of stress. In order to better understand mental health for Chinese police, the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) and Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R) are commonly used in mainland China. Unfortunately, both the SDS and SCL-90-R lack detailed information on their psychometric properties. More specifically, factor structures of the SDS and SCL-90-R have yet to be confirmed among the police population in mainland China. Therefore, the present study compared several factor structures of the SDS and SCL-90-R proposed by prior research and to determine an appropriate structure for the police population. Utilizing cluster sampling, 1151 traffic police officers (1047 males; mean age = 36.6 years [SD = 6.10]) from 49 traffic police units in Jiangxi Province (China) participated in this study. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with Akaike information criterion (AIC) was used to decide the best fit structure. In the SDS, the three-factor model (first posited by Kitamura et al.) had the smallest AIC and outperformed other models. In the SCL-90-R, the eight-factor model had the smallest AIC and outperformed the one-factor and nine-factor models. CFA fit indices also showed that both the three-factor model in the SDS and the eight-factor model in the SCL-90-R had satisfactory fit. The present study’s results support the use of both SDS and SCL-90-R for police officers in mainland China.

Suggested Citation

  • I-Hua Chen & Chung-Ying Lin & Xia Zheng & Mark D. Griffiths, 2020. "Assessing Mental Health for China’s Police: Psychometric Features of the Self-Rating Depression Scale and Symptom Checklist 90-Revised," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-17, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:8:p:2737-:d:346086
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bishopp, Stephen A. & Boots, Denise Paquette, 2014. "General strain theory, exposure to violence, and suicide ideation among police officers: A gendered approach," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 42(6), pages 538-548.
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    Cited by:

    1. Alexandra Marcos & Cristina García-Ael & Gabriela Topa, 2020. "The Influence of Work Resources, Demands, and Organizational Culture on Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Citizenship Behaviors of Spanish Police Officers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-21, October.

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