TITLE:
Development and Validation of the Japanese-Translated Version of the Multiple-Choice Questionnaire of Depression Literacy (MCQ-DL)
AUTHORS:
Jun Kashihara, Shinji Sakamoto
KEYWORDS:
Depression, Mental Health Literacy, Depression Literacy, Validation, Japan
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.9 No.11,
October
12,
2018
ABSTRACT: Although depression literacy
plays a key role in encouraging people with depression to seek professional
treatment, there exist no measures of depression literacy in Japan that are
comparable to those validated in English-speaking countries. The present study
therefore developed and validated a Japanese-translated version of the
Multiple-Choice Questionnaire of Depression Literacy (MCQ-DL), which is rated
as being of high quality by recent systematic reviews. We conducted an online
two-wave survey (NT1 =
325, NT2 = 180) and
examined the psychometric properties of the full-item (27 items) and short (10
items) versions of the Japanese-translated MCQ-DL. Results provide several
points of validity evidence for both versions as measures that capture
individuals’ depression literacy profiles: 1) one-factor structures of these versions were
supported by the data; and 2) the items used in both versions had a variety of
difficulty and discrimination indices. Results also indicate several
limitations of the Japanese-translated MCQ-DL for use in correlation-based and
multivariate analyses: 1) internal consistencies seem insufficient (α = .68)
and poor (α = .28) for the full-item and short versions, respectively; 2) the test-retest
reliability was insufficient for the short version (r = .51, p r| ≤ .22) with the other variables, including
stigmatizing attitudes toward, and familiarity with, people with depression and
components of empathy. The discussion highlights the usage of and further room
for the validation of the Japanese-translated MCQ-DL we developed.