PILOT STUDY ON THE ADAPTATION AND VALIDATION OF GHQ-12, PSS-10, AND PCL-5 IN MANIPURI
Keywords:
GHQ-12, PSS-10, PCL-5, Manipuri Translation, Psychological Assessment ValidationAbstract
Background: The ongoing ethnic conflict and internal displacement in Manipur (Northeast India) have created an urgent need for culturally and linguistically appropriate mental health assessment tools. However, no validated Manipuri versions of widely used psychological instruments currently exist.
Objective: This pilot study aimed to translate, culturally adapt, and preliminarily validate the Manipuri versions of three standardized self-report measures—the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), and the 20-item PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5)—for future use with Manipuri-speaking populations, particularly internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Methods: A forward-backward translation procedure was employed, followed by expert panel review and pretesting. A purposive sample of 60 student-teachers (61.67% female; mean age = 28.12 years, SD = 3.13) from two teacher education institutes in Manipur completed the translated instruments along with a demographic questionnaire and the Health Consciousness (HC) scale. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Construct validity was examined through convergent validity (Pearson correlations with HC and PSS-10 scores) and exploratory factor analysis using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation.
Results: All three scales demonstrated good internal consistency: GHQ-12 (α = 0.88), PSS-10 (α = 0.89), and PCL-5 (α = 0.86). Convergent validity was supported by significant correlations between GHQ-12 and HC (r = -0.66, p < .001), PSS-10 and HC (r = -0.58, p < .001), and PCL-5 and PSS-10 (r = 0.71, p < .001). PCA revealed theoretically meaningful two-factor structures for all three instruments, explaining 51.36% (GHQ-12), 65.9% (PSS-10), and 68.15% (PCL-5) of the total variance respectively.
Conclusion: The Manipuri versions of GHQ-12, PSS-10, and PCL-5 show preliminary reliability and construct validity in a student-teacher sample. Larger-scale validation studies with IDP populations and clinical samples are warranted before widespread implementation.
References
I. Bovin, M. J., Marx, B. P., Weathers, F. W., Gallagher, M. W., Rodriguez, P., Schnurr, P. P., & Keane, T. M. (2016). Psychometric properties of the PTSD Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–Fifth Edition (PCL-5) in veterans. Psychological Assessment, 28(11), 1379–1391. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000254
II. Cohen, S., Kessler, R. C., & Gordon, L. U. (1997). Measuring Stress: A Guide for Health and Social Scientists. Oxford University Press.
III. Donath S. (2001). The validity of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire in Australia: a comparison between three scoring methods. Aust N Z J Psychiatry., 35, 231–235. doi: 10.1046/j.1440-1614.2001.00869.x.
IV. Goldberg, D.P., & Blackwell, B. (1970). Psychiatric illness in general practice. A detailed study using a new method of case identification. Br Med J., 1, 439–443. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.5707.439.
V. Golderberg, D, & Williams, P. (1988). A user's guide to the General Health questionnaire. Windsor, UK: NFER-Nelson.
VI. Jacob, K.S., Bhugra, D., & Mann, A.H. (1997). The validation of the 12-item General Health questionnaire in ethnic Indian women living in the United Kingdom. Psychol Med., 27, 1215–1217. doi: 10.1017/S0033291796004436.
VII. Kaiser, H. F. (1974). An index of factorial simplicity. Psychometrika, 39(1), 31–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02291575
VIII. Pevalin, D.J. (2000). Multiple applications of the GHQ-12 in a general population sample: an investigation of long-term retest effects. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemio., 35:508–512. doi: 10.1007/s001270050272.
IX. Schmitz, N., Kruse, J., & Tress, W. (1999). Psychometric properties of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-12) in a German primary care. Acta Psychiatr Scand., 100:462–468. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1999.tb10898.x.
X. Snell, W. E., Jr. & Johnson, G. (2002). Chapter 9: The Multidimensional Health Questionnaire. In W. E. Snell, Jr. (Ed.), Progress in the Study of Physical and Psychological Health. Cape Girardeau, MO: Snell Publications.
XI. Weathers, F.W., Litz, B.T., Keane, T.M., Palmieri, P.A., Marx, B.P., & Schnurr, P.P. (2013). The PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). Scale available from the National Center for PTSD at www.ptsd.va.gov.
Additional Files
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 International Educational Journal of Science and Engineering
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
