Validation of “Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales” and “Changes in Psychological Distress during COVID-19” among University Students in Malaysia

Abstract

Objectives: This study assessed the reliability and validity of the DASS-21 self-reported measure in the context of COVID-19 on anxiety, stress, and depression. Through this Study, the psychological effect of COVID-19 on anxiety, tension, and depression amongst samples of students enrolled in 201 Malaysian private universities was assessed. Methods: The data were collected from university students through an online survey because of Malaysian Government Movement Control Order (MCO) restrictions. Two separate intervals were used for data collection (i.e., May and September 2020), as this period was associated with the pandemic. For scale validation, convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity criteria were used. Results: The outcome of a CFA model for DASS-21 yielded factor loading that is very significant. Therefore, the measure of the root means square error approximation (RMSEA) and the comparative fit index (CFI) are acceptable values that were produced, demonstrating a good fit for the data. Conclusions: This study was conducted in the Malaysian context to validate depression, anxiety, and stress among university students using the DASS-21 scale. Our findings support the reliability of using DASS-21 in the Malaysian cultural context. Lastly, we testified to the presence of depression, anxiety, and stress among university students through descriptive statistics and provided empirical evidence in this regard. Our results suggested that there was a significant presence of DASS among university students.

Assessing the Big Data Adoption Readiness Role in Healthcare between Technology Impact Factors and Intention to Adopt Big Data

“…The TOE system is useful for the structured study of innovation impact within an organization. According to Tornatzky [54], TOE helps to differentiate inherent creativity characteristics, organizational abilities and motivations, and overall environmental factors concerning innovation [55,56]. We have identified four innovation characteristics and four contextual variables (technology competence, company size, competitive demand, and partner readiness) as determinants of post-adoption use, and we postulate that usage serves as an intermediate link to influence firm efficiency.…”

The Relationship between Social Support, Self-Esteem and Stress among UPM Undergraduate Students

“…Nonetheless, the majority of research in Malaysia has only been carried out in public universities. Isha et al (2023) researched to determine the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among university students. It is unavoidable that stress contributes significantly to human mortality and morbidity in affluent countries across the world, and Malaysia is no different.…”

A systematic review of studies on stress during the COVID-19 pandemic by visualizing their structure through COOC, VOS viewer, and Cite Space software

“…Current research on stress during COVID-19 has focused on four primary areas: causes of stress, influential elements, impacts on individuals, and relief measures. First, on the formation causes of stress during COVID-19, the COVID-19 lockdown enhanced changes in human lifestyles, thereby increasing the incidence of anxieties, stresses and depressions and creating a wide range of stresses ( 14 – 17 ). For instance, for remote workers, the COVID-19 lockdown rendered work technologically more stressful ( 18 – 21 ).…”