Introduction: Psychological distress among university students is a growing concern, impacting academic performance, mental health, and well-being. Existing measures often capture distress only partially, focusing on single domains such as anxiety or stress.
Purpose: This study aimed to develop and validate the Academic Psychological Distress Scale (APDS), a multidimensional tool designed to comprehensively assess distress in higher education students.
Method: Two independent samples of Italian university students participated (Sample 1: N = 310; Sample 2: N = 367). In Sample 1, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to identify the latent structure of the preliminary scale. In Sample 2, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to test model fit and refine the item set. Concurrent measures of academic stress, general psychological distress, and academic engagement were administered to assess validity.
Results: EFA revealed a six-factor solution comprising 37 items, which was refined to 25 items after CFA, yielding excellent model fit (χ²/df = 2.31; RMSEA = .06 [95% CI = .05, .06]; CFI = .94; TLI = .93; SRMR = .04). The six factors were academic anxiety, stress-related somatic responses, loneliness, negative self-worth, fatigue, and demoralization. The APDS demonstrated high internal consistency, strong convergent and discriminant validity, and meaningful correlations with academic stress (positive), general psychological distress (positive), and academic engagement and performance (negative).
Conclusions: The APDS is a psychometrically robust, multidimensional measure of academic psychological distress. It provides a comprehensive assessment that can inform targeted support strategies and guide intervention development for university students.