Running head: PATH ANALYSIS OF THE SCL-90-R 1 Path Analysis of the SCL-90-R: Exploring Use in Outpatient Assessment

The Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90-R) is a widely used assessment of mental health pathology. Its factor structure has been called into question by numerous studies. This study assessed a community mental health outpatient sample (n = 336) with the SCL-90-R and analyzed the factor structure. The results indicated that the SCL-90-R measures one large factor, but the test items held together reasonably well when a nine-factor extraction was executed. A shorter 67-item variant, which was a byproduct of this study, is hypothesized as having some key advantages over the original 90-item version. Implications for the assessment of the outpatient population with the SCL-90-R and its variants are discussed.