Rasch analysis of the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 with African American and White students

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychometrics
• Health Disparities

Background:

• Psychological services in the U.S. are unequally distributed, leading to health disparities.
• Existing assessment tools may not accurately measure mental health in diverse populations.
• The Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18) is a widely used measure of psychological distress.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the BSI-18 for assessing psychological distress in African American students.
• To determine if the BSI-18 is culturally appropriate for this population.
• To address health disparities in mental health assessment.

Main Methods:

• Principal axis factoring
• Confirmatory factor analysis
• Rasch analyses
• Cross-validation with a second sample and a white sample

Main Results:

• The BSI-18 demonstrated a unidimensional structure among African American and white students.
• The measure showed low person separation and stability across samples.
• Rasch analyses indicated potential improvements in reliability when the scale was collapsed to three points.
• Differential item functioning was minimal.

Conclusions:

• The BSI-18 appears to be a culturally appropriate tool for assessing psychological distress in African American students.
• Findings support the use of the BSI-18 in multicultural research, with considerations for item skewness and scale modification.
• Addressing assessment disparities is crucial for equitable mental health care.