20.500.12556/RUL-181386 Depression and anxiety symptoms in adolescents across 30 countries cross-national measurement invariance and relationships with subjective well-being Cross-cultural empirical evidence on the validity of measures of depression and anxiety symptoms in adolescents is scarce and inconclusive. The present study investigated the cross-national measurement invariance and convergent validity evidence of the Depression and Anxiety scales of the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS-21). We sampled 16,802 adolescents (58.1% female) aged 14–19 years across 30 countries from five continents. Both exact and approximate measurement invariance were tested. The results provided evidence for the exploratory structural equation model (ESEM) as the best representation of the data in most countries. Full scalar invariance was not supported when tested across all countries, but only among two Southern Asian countries (Bangladesh, India), two Northern European countries (Estonia, Lithuania), the six former republics of Yugoslavia, and European and American countries grouped by UN subregions. Results of the alignment method supported the approximate invariance of the ESEM model across 29 countries. Associations between Depression and Anxiety ESEM factors and life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect conformed to the theoretical expectations in most countries. Our findings indicate that the Depression and Anxiety scales of the DASS-21 have potential for use in cross-national research on adolescent internalizing symptoms, but we highlight issues of using it outside of Western (European, North American) settings. depression anxiety culture adolescence measurement invariance exploratory structural equation modeling depresivnost anksioznost mladostništvo medkulturne razlike merska invariantnost strukturno modeliranje true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Članek v reviji 2026-04-03 12:25:53 2026-04-03 12:25:59 2026-04-04 04:47:29 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2026 0 0 13 str. art. 121693 Vol. 406 2026 0000-00-00 PostprintKoncna Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 159.942-053.6 1573-2517 10.1016/j.jad.2026.121693 274174467 Avsec_Depression_and_anxiety_symptoms_in_adolescents_across_30_countries_recenzirani_rokopis.pdf Avsec_Depression_and_anxiety_symptoms_in_adolescents_across_30_countries_recenzirani_rokopis.pdf 1 076BC4F9E4031C6AEFBED840C1A72569 e19b696859c3f26f5be68d85b100d0aa35118acfa864952edfc7cd1e265c7c46 c3c1168b-2f47-11f1-b0ab-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=231804 https://www-sciencedirect-com.nukweb.nuk.uni-lj.si/science/article/pii/S0165032726005446 Dostopno iz prostorov UL, CTK, NIB in NUK. Oddaljen dostop za študente in zaposlene UL, CTK, NIB in NUK. 1 576b71a4-2f47-11f1-b0ab-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=231803 Filozofska fakulteta Zdravstvena fakulteta 0 0 0