AbstractBackgroundExperiencing natural disasters is associated with common mental disorders including major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the latent structure of MDD is widely debated, and few studies tested the MDD factor structure in Chinese natural disaster survivors. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to evaluate the factorial validity of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) for DSM-5 major depressive disorder (MDD) symptoms in Chinese earthquake survivors.MethodParticipants were 1058 Chinese earthquake survivors. Self-reported measures included the PHQ-9 and the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to examine the latent structure of MDD and the associations between latent factors of MDD and different domains of health-related quality of life (HRQoL), respectively.ResultsIn the current sample, the model consisted of somatic and cognitive/affective (non-somatic) factors demonstrated significantly better fit than the other competing MDD models (χ2?=?173.89, df?=?26, CFI?=?0.986, TLI?=?0.981, RMSEA?=?0.073, BIC?=?18,091.13). Further SEM analyses indicated that the non-somatic factor was significantly related to both physical (β?=???0.362, p?