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Reliability and Validity of the Chinese Version of the Premenstrual Symptoms Screening Tool
1School of Psychology, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China.
Objective:
To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Premenstrual Symptoms Screening Tool (PSST) in a sample of Chinese female college students.
Methods:
A total of 1366 female college students completed the Chinese version of the PSST, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ), and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD). According to the screening criteria of the PSST, 196 participants were categorized into the premenstrual syndrome (PMS) group, 24 participants were categorized into the premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) group, and the remaining 1146 were assigned to the healthy control group. For test-retest reliability assessment, a separate sample of 50 female college students completed the Chinese PSST twice, with a retest interval of 28-32 days (M = 30.27, SD = 0.55).
Results:
The Cronbach's α coefficients for the Symptom Dimension, Impact Dimension, and total scale of the Chinese PSST were 0.95, 0.93, and 0.91, respectively; the corresponding test-retest reliability coefficients (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]) were 0.89, 0.99, and 0.94, respectively. The scale showed satisfactory empirical validity: the proportion of moderate-to-severe symptom endorsements (score = 2-3) across all PSST items was significantly higher in the PMS group and the PMDD group than in the healthy control group (all p < 0.001). Scores on the total PSST and its two dimensions were significantly positively correlated with scores on the PHQ and GAD (all p < 0.001). For construct validity, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that the Chinese PSST had a two-factor structure (Symptom Dimension and Impact Dimension) with acceptable model fit indices (χ2/df = 4.21, GFI = 0.932, CFI = 0.925, TLI = 0.905, RMSEA = 0.05), indicating good construct validity.
Conclusion:
The Chinese version of the PSST exhibits excellent reliability and validity among Chinese female college students and thus serves as a reliable tool for screening moderate-to-severe PMS in this population.
