Introduction: Cultural factors and assessment methods significantly influence how anxiety symptoms are expressed and reported. However, few cross-cultural studies have employed culturally appropriate and validated tools, and even fewer have provided substantial comparisons across different groups with diverse cultural backgrounds. This study aimed to assess the measurement invariance of the GAD-7 scale across Chinese and Rwandese adolescents, enabling reliable cross-cultural comparisons.

Methods: This study included 2017 Chinese adolescents and 1813 Rwandan adolescents. Cronbach's alpha, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and multiple group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) were used to assess the validity of the GAD-7 scale across the two groups. Measurement invariance testing was employed to investigate cross-cultural equivalence.

Results: The GAD-7 demonstrated good psychometric properties. CFA supported a one-factor model for the GAD-7 in both samples, though model fit indices varied. Measurement invariance testing confirmed configural and metric invariance but found partial scalar invariance. A latent mean comparison indicated a trend toward higher anxiety levels in Rwandan adolescents compared to Chinese adolescents, though the difference was not statistically significant (z = 0.02, d = 0.033, p = 0.98).

Discussion: The GAD-7 showed reliability in measuring generalized anxiety in both Chinese and Rwandese adolescents, confirming its cross-cultural construct validity. However, partial scalar invariance suggests that while the GAD-7 effectively detects anxiety symptoms, the severity of reported symptoms may not be directly comparable across cultures due to response patterns and possible linguistic factors. These findings highlight the importance of culturally sensitive instruments for accurate anxiety assessment and expand evidence on reliable symptom screening and treatment monitoring across diverse populations.

Keywords: GAD-7 scale; adolescent mental health; cross-cultural comparison; cultural differences; generalized anxiety disorder-7 (GAD); measurement invariance; psychometric validation [LN1].

Copyright © 2025 Niwenahisemo, Zhang, Wang, Geng, Xu, Hu, Ma, Tan, Kong, Hong and Kuang.

简介： 文化因素和评估方法显著影响焦虑症状的表现和报告方式。然而，很少有跨文化研究使用经过文化验证的适当工具，并且提供不同具有多样化背景群体之间实质性比较的研究更是寥寥无几。本研究旨在评估GAD-7量表在中国和卢旺达青少年之间的测量不变性，从而实现可靠的跨文化对比。

方法： 本研究包括2017名中国青少年和1813名卢旺达青少年。使用克伦巴赫α系数、探索性因素分析（EFA）以及多组确认性因素分析（MGCFA），评估GAD-7量表在两个群体中的有效性。测量不变性测试被用于调查跨文化等价性。

结果： GAD-7展示了良好的心理测量特性。CFA支持了在两组样本中GAD-7的一因子模型，尽管拟合指标有所变化。测量不变性测试确认构型和度量不变性，但发现部分标度不变性。潜在均值比较显示卢旺达青少年的焦虑水平比中国青少年稍高，但是差异没有统计学意义（z = 0.02, d = 0.033, p = 0.98）。

讨论： GAD-7在测量中国和卢旺达青少年的广泛性焦虑方面显示出可靠性，确认了其跨文化构念有效性。然而，部分标度不变性表明虽然GAD-7能够有效检测焦虑症状，但由于回答模式及可能的语言因素影响，报告症状严重程度在不同文化之间不能直接比较。这些发现强调了使用具有文化敏感性的工具以进行准确的焦虑评估的重要性，并扩展了跨多样化人群可靠的症状筛查和治疗监测的证据。

关键词： GAD-7量表；青少年心理健康；跨文化对比；文化差异；广泛性焦虑障碍7项（GAD）；测量不变性；心理测量验证 [LN1]。