Psychological distress: A hierarchical factor model of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL)

Recent investigations of the structure of psychological distress have indicated that hierarchical models can accommodate both unitary and multifaceted conceptions of distress. The present study tested the hierarchical framework suggested by Zuckerman, Lubin, and Rinck (1983) for the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL), a commonly used measure of psychological distress. One- and two-factor models were estimated using maximum-likelihood methods. Results indicated that the two-factor solution, with correlated positive and negative affect factors, provided a significantly better fit to the data than did the omnibus one-factor solution. These results provide further support for hierarchical models of distress.