Psychometric Assessment of Screening Measures for Depression, Anxiety, Somatization, and Life Satisfaction in Honduran University Students

This study evaluated the structural, convergent, and discriminant validity, invariance, and internal consistency of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Somatic Symptom Scale-8 (SSS-8), and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) among 910 students at the National Autonomous University of Honduras. Mental health issues are common among university students, with anxiety, depression, and somatization often co-occurring from a transdiagnostic perspective. Life satisfaction, meanwhile, is recognized as a protective factor for mental well-being. In response to rising psychological distress among university students, reliable mental health screening tools are critical for early detection and intervention. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the unidimensional structure of each scale, while multigroup CFA demonstrated gender invariance. Women reported higher anxiety, depression, and somatization scores, whereas men had higher life satisfaction. Internal consistency, measured by McDonald's Omega (<i>Ω</i>) and composite reliability, was excellent for GAD-7 (<i>Ω</i> = 0.927), PHQ-9 (<i>Ω</i> = 0.919), and SSS-8 (<i>Ω</i> = 0.873). Convergent and discriminant validity were supported through significant correlations: GAD-7, PHQ-9, and SSS-8 were positively correlated with each other, and negatively correlated with SWLS. These findings confirm that the four scales are psychometrically sound instruments for evaluating mental health in Honduran university students.