Symptom Check-List-90-R: Fiabilidad, datos normativos y estructura factorial en estudiantes universitarios

The Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) is a widely used instrument for the measurement of the psychopathological symptoms in clinical and general population. Since great part of the investigation in psychopathology is carried out with university students, this instrumental study tries to provide data of reference for this population. We analyze the psychometric properties of this scale in a representative sample of 1277 students from the University of Girona. The highest scores were observed in the dimensions in the whole sample were the obsessive-compulsive, depression and interpersonal sensibility. The results show significant differences between men and women. The reliability of the scale turns out to be very acceptable, with some coefficients of internal consistency of the nine primary dimensions and of the GSI, which oscillate between .69 and .97. The factorial structure analysis and the strong interdependency among the primary scales question the multidimensional structure of the SCL-90-R and reinforce the idea that the instrument provides a measure of general distress, that is to say, that it is a unidimensional marker of psychological discomfort more than a measure of differentiated psychopathological dimensions.