App · iOS 16 and later
The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10), implemented exactly as published, with its standard scoring bands and a record of your scores over time.
Ten questions about how you have been feeling over the past four weeks, each answered on a five-point frequency scale. Scoring follows the published form, where “None of the time” scores 1 rather than 0, giving a total between 10 and 50.
Results are reported against the bands published by Andrews and Slade (2001), derived from Australian Bureau of Statistics normative data: 10–15 Low, 16–21 Moderate, 22–29 High, 30–50 Very high. We use the published band names rather than our own, so that a score means the same thing here as it does in the literature.
The K10 measures non-specific psychological distress. It is a screening scale, and it does not diagnose any condition. A score of 30 or above brings up a card pointing to a doctor, a mental health professional, or a crisis line.
If you are struggling, please talk to your doctor or another health professional. In Australia, Lifeline is available on 13 11 14, at any hour.
Every completed questionnaire is saved with its date, total, and band, so you can see how your scores move over time. If you opt in to the research programme, you can also compare them against other participants in Australia and the United States, once at least ten other participants in a country have taken part.
This app implements the K10 exactly as published, along with its standard scoring bands. These are the primary sources, and the same ones listed in the app.
1. Kessler, R. C. 1996. Kessler's 10 Psychological Distress Scale. Boston, MA: Harvard Medical School.
2. Kessler, R. C., G. Andrews, L. J. Colpe, E. Hiripi, D. K. Mroczek, S.-L. T. Normand, E. E. Walters, and A. M. Zaslavsky. 2002. “Short Screening Scales to Monitor Population Prevalences and Trends in Non-Specific Psychological Distress.” Psychological Medicine 32 (6): 959–976. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291702006074.
3. Andrews, Gavin, and Tim Slade. 2001. “Interpreting Scores on the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10).” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 25 (6): 494–497. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-842X.2001.tb00310.x.
4. Kessler, R. C., P. R. Barker, L. J. Colpe, J. F. Epstein, J. C. Gfroerer, E. Hiripi, M. J. Howes, S.-L. T. Normand, R. W. Manderscheid, E. E. Walters, and A. M. Zaslavsky. 2003. “Screening for Serious Mental Illness in the General Population.” Archives of General Psychiatry 60 (2): 184–189. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.60.2.184.
The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) was developed by Ronald C. Kessler and colleagues. This app uses the scale for research purposes only. Use of the K6 and K10 is free and requires no formal permission; the scale's authors ask that the 2003 article be cited, which it is above and in the app.