Factorial invariance of the mood and anxiety symptom questionnaire-short form across gender

The mood and anxiety symptom questionnaire (MASQ; Clark & Watson, 1991) is a specific assessment for the tripartite model of depression and anxiety. The current study aimed to evaluate the factor structure and factorial invariance of the short form of MASQ (MASQ-SF) across gender. The sample consists of 2,394 undergraduates (44.2% males), with a mean age of 20.89 years (SD = 1.23). Consistent with previous studies, the tripartite model fitted the data well, both for the total sample and each gender group. Results of multi-group confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated measurement and structural invariance of MASQ-SF across gender. Moreover, Findings with respect to the latent mean differences across gender revealed that general distress was higher in females than in males. To our knowledge, the current study is the first attempt to evaluate the factorial invariance of the MASQ-SF across gender, which makes meaningful contributions to the validity of the MASQ-SF as a widely used self-report measure for the tripartite model of depression and anxiety.