Page 108 - IJPS-10-3

International Journal of
Population Studies Gender differences in mental health outcomes

severe), while items 8 – 10 are graded on a 4-point Likert 2.4. Translation procedure and piloting
scale from 1 (never/almost never) to 4 (almost always). Three of the scales (fear of COVID-19, the Family APGAR
Higher scores indicate high anxiety (α =0.919).
Cronbach Index, and the IFDFW), not validated nor available in
2.3.4. The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Arabic, were translated into this language. Three authors
Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) performed the forward translation, and the other three did
the back translation. Discrepancies between the original
This 20-item tool evaluates the 20 DSM-5 symptoms English versions and the translated ones were resolved by
of PTSD in the past month. It is available in Arabic and consensus. The final version was pilot-tested on ten people
validated in Syria (Ibrahim et al., 2018). Responses are rated unfamiliar with the study. The final dataset did not include
on a 5-point Likert scale from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely). their answers.
The total symptom severity score (range 0 – 80) is obtained
by summing the responses for each of the 20 items. Higher 2.5. Ethics approval and consent to participate
scores reflect higher symptoms resulting from a stressful The Institutional Review Board of the American University
experience (α Cronbach = 0.971). As online surveys do not of Science and Technology approved this study protocol
permit an accurate diagnosis of PTSD but instead assess (AUST-IRB-20200527-01), as this work has been
PTS symptoms, this paper employs the term PTSS to refer performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid
to this evaluation.
down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later
2.3.5. The Lebanese Insomnia Scale (LIS-18) amendments. The topic was explained to all participants
in the introductory section of the survey, and consent to
This 18-item tool, recently validated in Lebanon (Hallit participate was implicit. The anonymity of participants was
et al., 2019), was used to screen for insomnia. Answers guaranteed throughout the process of data collection and
are graded on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (never) to 5 analysis.
(always), with higher scores indicating more insomnia
(α = 0.847). 2.6. Statistical analysis
Cronbach
2.3.6. The Family Adaptation, Partnership, Growth, Data were collected using Google Forms, a tool that
Affection, and Resolve (APGAR) index automatically generates an Excel database, then transferred
®
to IBM SPSS , version 23.0, for analysis. Before the
This instrument evaluates satisfaction with the global family analysis, data were weighted according to gender, age,
function (Good et al., 1979). It consists of five questions and dwelling region, based on the figures of the Central
graded on a 3-point Likert scale: 0 (hardly ever), 1 (some Administration of Statistics (Central Administration of
of the time), and 2 (almost always). Each corresponds to a Statistics [CAS], 2021; Salameh et al., 2020). The descriptive
component of family function, that is, APGAR. The total, analysis used frequencies and percentages for categorical
ranging from 0 to 10, is obtained by summing the answers variables and means and standard deviations (SD) for
to all items. Higher scores indicate higher satisfaction with quantitative variables. For dependent variables (BDS-22,
family function (α = 0.927).
Cronbach LIS-18, LAS-10, PCL-5, and WHO-5), the distribution
2.3.7. The WHO-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5) was considered normal based on the visual inspection
of the histogram and the skewness and kurtosis (lower
This short-version questionnaire, validated in Lebanon than 1). These conditions are compatible with normality in
(Sibai et al., 2009), consists of five questions graded from a sample size larger than 300 (Mishra et al., 2019).
0 to 5 assessing mental well-being in the past month. The
total score ranges from 0 to 25; higher scores indicate For the bivariate analysis of continuous variables,
better mental well-being (α Cronbach = 0.796). the Student’s t-test was used to compare the means
between two groups (mainly gender) after checking for
2.3.8. The InCharge Financial Distress/Financial Well- homogeneity of variances using Levene’s test. In case the
Being Scale (IFDFW) variances were not homogeneous, the corrected T-test was
This tool includes eight items assessing the perceived applied. The Chi-square test was used for dichotomous and
financial distress/financial well-being on a 1-to-10 linear multinomial variables comparison between groups. When
scale (Prawitz et al., 2006). Lower scores reflect higher calculated values per case were <5, the Fisher exact test
financial distress and lower well-being (α Cronbach = 0.925). was performed. In all cases, p-value lower than 0.05 was
Since this tool is copyrighted, written permission was considered significant.
obtained from the authors to use it and validate it in Afterward, a multivariate analysis employing the
Lebanon. General Linear Model was performed, using the mental

Volume 10 Issue 3 (2024) 102 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.1985