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Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10)

  • The K10 is a 10-item measurement of psychological distress.

    It was developed by Ronald Kessler and was screened at a population level by the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Well-Being. Some references are below:

    • Kessler, R.C., Andrews, G., Colpe, L.J., Hiripi, E., Mroczek, D.K., Normand, S.L.T., et al.(2002). Short screening scales to monitor population prevalences and trends in non-specific psychological distress. Psychological Medicine, 32, 959-976.
    • Furukawa, T.A., Kessler, R.C., Slade, T., & Andrews, G. (2003). The performance of the K6 and K10 screening scales for psychological distress in the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Well-Being. Psychological Medicine, 33, 357-362.

    Measurement citation:

    • Kessler, R.C., Barker, P.R., Colpe, L.J., Epstein, J.F., Gfroerer, J.C., Hiripi, E., et al. (2003). Screening for serious mental illness in the general population. Archives of General Psychiatry, 60, 184-189.

    Responses on the K10 range from 'None of the time” to 'All the time” along a 5-point scale, but the scale can be summed in two different ways. The Australian way has a minimum score of 10 and a maximum of 50 and the US scoring has a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 40. Although our K10 is entered in the Australian format of 1-5, we have converted to the 0-4 format to be consistent with the more numerous US studies.