Abstract
Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) is a self-report instrument designed to measure defense mechanisms. Although commonly used, the DSQ-40 has not been validated in early adolescent populations. The present study sought to determine the factor validity of the DSQ-40 in a sample of Greek primary school students (N = 265). Further, it aimed to investigate the relationship between defense mechanisms and perceived parental acceptance/rejection, the participation in bullying (either as bully or victim) as well as self-reported well being. Participants completed the Greek version of DSQ-40, adapted for use by this particular age group as well as measures in order to examine its convergent and discriminant validity. The findings support a four-factor solution as the most adequate for our data. Further, it was found that defense mechanisms are related to perceived parental acceptance and rejection. Finally, the results showed that the DSQ-40 can effectively discriminate participants with high/low bullying/victimization and perceived well-being. Our results indicate that the DSQ-40 is appropriate for use in late childhood. Implications for clinical practice and future studies that would confirm the appropriateness of the scale’s use in younger populations are also discussed.
Highlights
Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) is a self-report instrument designed to measure defense mechanisms
Gardner, Christian, and Sigal (1983) taking into account Vaillant’s hierarchical model, suggested an immaturity-maturity continuum and developed a self-report measure, the 67-item Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-67); the principal aim was the assessment of possible conscious aspects of defense mechanisms, with the underlying intention “to elicit manifestations of a subject’s characteristic style of dealing with conflict, either conscious or unconscious, based on the assumption that persons can accurately comment on their behaviour from a distance” (Bond et al, 1983, p. 334)
The aim of the present study is to explore (a) the factorial structure of DSQ-40 (b) to identify the internal consistency of the factors emerged from the exploration of the factor structure of the questionnaire, as well as its convergent validity and (c) to test whether the defensive styles emerged from the factor analysis could differentiate individuals according to their gender and age as well as to the extent they get involved in bullying and victimization and the level of their self-reported well-being
Summary
Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) is a self-report instrument designed to measure defense mechanisms. The present study sought to determine the factor validity of the DSQ-40 in a sample of Greek primary school students (N = 265) It aimed to investigate the relationship between defense mechanisms and perceived parental acceptance/rejection, the participation in bullying (either as bully or victim) as well as self-reported well being. Implications for clinical practice and future studies that would confirm the appropriateness of the scale’s use in younger populations are discussed. The latest version was modified by Andrews, Pollock, and Stewart (1989) according to DSM-III-R; they suggested a 72-item version which included 20 defenses loading on three factors, labeled Mature, Neurotic and Immature. This version was further modified to a short 40-item questionnaire corresponding to 20 defense mechanisms which were organized into three second order factors: Mature, Neurotic, Immature
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