Depression, anxiety and stress symptoms among students in Albania explored by DASS-42

Introduction In Albania, at the current time, no research has been conducted to assess students’ risk for depression, anxiety and stress. Objectives To explore which group of students are at risk for depression, anxiety and stress. Aim The aim of this study is to explore the symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress among students according to the 42-item Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-42). Material and methods The DASS-42 was translated from English to Albanian, culturally verified, back-translated and administered to 570 students in university campus of Tirana district. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) and Cronbach's alpha, were performed to identify the psychometric properties of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress subscales and the overall scale. Results EFA with equamax rotation indicated that the 42 items loaded on three factors accounting for 53.2% of the total variance, 19.9% for depression, 17.6% for anxiety and 16.7% for stress subscale. The internal consistency coefficients were high, ranging from 0.90 to 0.93 for subscales and 0.96 for the scale. The mean score of females for the overall scale M = 28.0 (± 36.3 SD) was significantly higher as compared to males, M = 22.9 (± 36.5 SD), (t = 2.6, P < 0.01). Females also had a significant higher score M = 11.5 (± 12.8 SD), for depression as compared to males M = 8.7 (± 12.6 SD), (t = 2.4, P = 0.02), whereas no difference was found with regard to anxiety (P = 0.2) and stress subscales (P = 0.07). Conclusions Female students, students from rural areas and married individuals have more total scores for depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. Disclosure of interest The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.