Temporal stability of the Brief Symptom Inventory 18 among Irish college students over four weeks

• Frank Houghton

  Limerick Institute of Technology

• Noreen Keane

  Limerick Institute of Technology

• Christopher Alan Lewis

  Glyndwr University

• Niamh Murphy

  Limerick Institute of Technology

• Sharon Houghton

  University of Limerick

• Claire Dunne

  University College Cork

Of the currently limited available data on the mental health of students in Ireland the most notable are provided in the College Lifestyle and Attitudinal National (CLAN) Survey (Hope, Dring, & Dring, 2005). Recently, Houghton et al. (2012) found among students at an Irish university that women reported significantly higher levels of symptomatology than men on each of the three 6-item subscales of the Brief Symptom Inventory 18 (BSI 18; Derogatis, 2001) (anxiety, depression, and somatization) and the Global Severity Index (GSI; summed total of the 18 items). Similarly, final-year students had significantly worse mental health than non-final-year students. Internal reliability, construct validity, and factor structure of the BSI 18, were reported but no data on the test-retest reliability of the measure. Our aim was to supplement these findings by reporting on the test-retest reliability of the BSI 18 in a small sample of Irish college students.

1. Frank Houghton, Limerick Institute of Technology
   Department of Humanities
2. Noreen Keane, Limerick Institute of Technology
   Department of Humanities
3. Christopher Alan Lewis, Glyndwr University
   Professor of Psychology,  Dean of Institute for Health, Medical Sciences and Society
4. Niamh Murphy, Limerick Institute of Technology
   Department of Humanities
5. Sharon Houghton, University of Limerick
   Department of Education and Professional Studies
6. Claire Dunne, University College Cork
   PASS Coordinator (Peer Support)

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