Assessing Stress, Anxiety, and Depression in Children and Adolescents: Validation of the DASS-Y in Poland

BackgroundThe Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) is a widely used measure of negative emotional states in adults and adolescents. A youth version (DASS-Y) was recently developed and validated to address the developmental needs of younger populations. While the DASS-Y has shown promising psychometric properties in several languages, no Polish adaptation has been conducted to date. This study aimed to validate the Polish version of the DASS-Y and assess its psychometric performance in a sample of children and adolescents. ResultsCFA supported the original three-factor structure of the DASS-Y with satisfactory model fit indices. The subscales demonstrated excellent internal consistency, with Cronbachs alpha and McDonalds omega values exceeding 0.85. The DASS-Y subscales correlated significantly with the CDI and SAM scales in expected directions, supporting convergent and discriminant validity. Metric invariance across genders was established, though scalar invariance was not fully supported, indicating potential differences in item intercepts between boys and girls. ConclusionsThe Polish version of the DASS-Y is a reliable and valid tool for assessing depression, anxiety, and stress in Polish children and adolescents. While the instrument functions similarly across genders in terms of structure, caution is advised when comparing mean scores between boys and girls due to partial scalar invariance. Future research should explore the DASS-Ys applicability in clinical settings and its sensitivity to changes over time.