Validation of the Korean Parental Depression Literacy Scale

The aim of the present study was to validate the Korean American Parental Depression Literacy Scale (Parental D-Lit Scale), which was modified from Griffith's Depression Literacy Scale based on expert reviews, individual and focus group interviews, and a cross-sectional, self-administered survey. Survey participants included Korean American mothers (n=107, 74.8%) and fathers (n=36, 25.2%) of adolescent children. We examined reliability and validity using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and correlational and comparison analyses. The scale showed moderate reliability and validity (=0.72) and content validity (scale-level content validity index=0.875). EFA resulted in a three-factor model, and CFA showed a close fit to the data (root mean square error of approximation=0.056). Reliability indices indicated that total scale scores were more useful for examining depression literacy than subscale scores. Criterion validity was supported by statistically-significant correlations in the expected direction between depression literacy and other theoretically-related constructs, including attitudes towards mental health-care services (+), depression stigma (-), recognition of depression (+), and acculturation (+). The Parental D-Lit Scale scores showed statistically-significant mean differences between parents who identified depression in a vignette (mean=18.3, standard deviation (SD)=2.9) and those who did not (mean=16.8, SD=4.0), indicating the discriminant validity of the scale. The Parental D-Lit Scale shows promise for use by psychiatric/mental health nurses in assessing the effectiveness of educational and clinical interventions. Additional research should employ larger samples in various regions of the USA.