title: Fiji norms and a cross-cultural clinical validation of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ 20).
abstract: Norms are presented for the 20-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ 20) that were obtained from a non-clinical group of the Fiji population. The data was required to give meaning to the results that had been obtained from a group of former hostages and the families of hostages that were still in custody. With the omission of two items, the outcome endorsed the robust psychometric properties of the instrument in terms of reliability and factor structure, and supported its use with quite a different cultural population from that for which originally it was designed. A validation study also showed expected differences between the normative group and the hostage group, with members of the hostage group classified after clinical interviews showing the most significant stress and receiving the highest scores on all four subscales as well as the full scale.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, NZ.
authors.forename: A J W
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: H S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Aghanwa
authors.forename: F H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Walkey
mesh_terms: D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005367:Fiji; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires