Reliability, validity, and factor structure of the Arabic version of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire

The aim was to examine the psychometric properties of the Arabic 12-item Ge neral Health Questionnaire in a sample of university students. A sample of 157 university students was screened using this questionnaire and the Hopki ns Symptom Cliecklist-90. A standardized clinical interview using SCID was conducted on a subset of screened students, Reliability, validity, and fact or analysis of the questionnaire were evaluated. Using factor score discrim ination between cases and noncases was also evaluated. The Arabic version o f the GHQ-12 proved to be reliable as indicated by Cronbach alpha of .86. T he best balance between sensitivity and specificity was found at the Genera l Health Questionnaire cut-off point of 15/16: at this threshold, sensitivi ty was .88 and was paired with a specificity of .84. Principal component an alysis with varimax rotation identified three factors, namely, Factor A (ge neral dysphoria), Factor B (lack of enjoyment), and Factor C (social dysfun ction), Factors A and C discriminated between clinically distressed and cli nically nondistressed subjects. The General Health Questionnaire-12 as a wh ole is a reliable and va][id screening tool in university settings.