RESUMEN
Aims: The goal of this project is to validate an instrument for measuring dental students' mental health outcomes due to COVID-19. Method(s): The instrument consists of 13 items measuring various aspects ofmental health issues arising from COVID-19. It was administered to 145 dental students. Summary statistics, item and person reliabilities, dimensionality, item targeting and gender bias were assessed. Result(s): Of the items evaluated, they showed excellent reliability (Item = 0.97;person = 0.86). The instrument targeted the dental students very well, and was fairly unidimensional.All of the items were free of gender bias. Interitem correlations were 0.89 on average (95% CI 0.86-0.91), demonstrating good internal consistency. Conclusion(s): The present study applied rigorous, advanced psychometric analysis to assess and validate a novel mental health instrument that specifically measures COVID-19 mental health outcomes in dental students. The instrument showed excellent measurement properties. It can serve as a valuable tool for evaluating the effectiveness of intervention programs that aim to improve students' mental health outcomes related to COVID-19.