A study: Semi-confirmatory factor analysis and reliability of the Symptom Assessment-45 questionnaire in Peruvian population

The study of psychopathological variables constitutes a valuable resource in the field of mental health, but even more so when there are evaluation support tools that facilitate its exploration. In addition, when these tools are valid and reliable, they provide optimal data, which guides towards a better intervention response, which is extremely necessary in the face of the reality that exists in terms of mental health needs. Therefore, this work seeks to analyze the evidence of the construct validity of SA-45, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. In addition, to find the reliability of the Symptom Assessment-45 Questionnaire (SA-45). The SA-45, and other measures (LOT-4, DASS-21) were applied to 1637 subjects from different regions of Peru, aged 18 to 65. Then, a semi-confirmatory factor analysis was performed by means of exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) and an objective matrix with Procrustes rotation to identify the hypothesized dimensions. All nine dimensions hypothesized by previous studies were found to have favorable factor congruence coefficients (FCC-total >.85), adequate factor saturations (λ >.30), acceptable to high internal consistency alpha, omega, and ordinal alpha coefficients (>.70), and satisfactory goodness-of-fit (RMSEA = 0.004, RMSR = 0.021, FCC = 0.99, GFI = 1.000). Likewise, the validity in relation to other instruments such as the DASS-21 and the LOT-R reports Pearson correlation coefficients with medium and large effect sizes (r =.30 and r =.50) in their dimensions. The SA-45 is a theoretically and psychometrically supported instrument for use in young and adult populations.