Psychometric properties of the Mindsets of Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (MDASS) in Chinese young adults and adolescents

Aim

Mindset has been found to be closely related to mental health symptoms. Yet no scale for the Mindsets of Depression, Anxiety, and Stress (MDASS) has been validated. This study developed a 12-item MDASS with four items in each domain and examined its psychometric properties among young adults and adolescents.

Methods

Young adults (Study 1: N = 1735, aged 18–25) and adolescents (Study 2, N = 1648, aged 9–16) completed socio-demographics information, MDASS (unidirectional items in Study 1 and bi-directional items in Study 2), and mental health symptoms measures. Both samples were randomly divided into two equal sub-samples, one for exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to identify the factor structure, the other for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess the goodness-of-fit of EFA models. Spearman correlations were used to assess the convergent validity of MDASS with measures of depression, anxiety, and stress.

Results

In Study 1, EFA yielded a three-factor model with underlying factors of fixed mindsets on depression, anxiety, and stress; CFA revealed a good goodness-of-fit (CFI and TFI >0.95; RMSEA and SRMR <0.08). In Study 2 with reversed items, EFA and CFA yielded a complex model structure. Fixed mindsets were positively correlated with depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms (all absolute correlations >0.3) in both studies.

Conclusion

MDASS is a reliable scale with clear factor structure to measure mindsets of negative emotions among early adults. MDASS is suggested to use only fixed-mindset statements. The MDASS are highly associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress.