The Talbieh Brief Distress Inventory: A brief instrument to measure psychological distress among immigrants

The purpose of this study was to develop and test the Talbieh Brief Distress Inventory (TBDI), a 24-item self-report questionnaire that measures psychological distress among immigrants. The TBDI combines items from the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and the Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Interview Demoralization Scale (PERT-D). It includes a global score and six scales (obsessiveness, hostility, sensitiveness, depression, anxiety, and paranoid ideation). A convenience sample of 966 recent immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union were asked to complete a Russian-language version of the BSI and PERT-D as part of a study on immigrants' psychological adjustment. The TBDI is a combination of 13 items from the BSI and 11 items from the PERI-D. Items for inclusion were based on results of a separate factor analysis for the BSI and PERT-D and removal of repetitive items. We compared the total score with the total PERT-D and BSI and developed gender-specific cutoff points of caseness for the TBDI by comparison to known PERT-D and BSI cutoff points. We also checked for reliability using Cronbach's α. The TBDI correlated highly with the PERT-D (r = .93) and with the BSI (r = .82). Reliability of the scales and the overall instrument ranged from Cronbach's α of .60 to .89. TBDI caseness cutoff points were in close agreement with the BSI and PERT-D as reflected by κ scores that ranged from .66 to .79. The TBDI is a promising instrument for screening populations for psychological distress and symptomatology. It is available in English, Hebrew, and Russian.