"Defeated by Life" - Validation of a German Version of the Defeat Scale (DS-d)

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Defeat and entrapment are transdiagnostic constructs that play an important role in the development of depression, anxiety, suicidality and trauma-associated mental disorders. The present study aimed at presenting and validating a first German version of the Defeat-Scale (DS-d). Through a web-based survey, N=480 participants were recruited (74% female; MAge=28.5, SDAge=11.1, Range: 18-80 years); 14.2% reported to currently suffer from a mental disorder, 8.5% reported at least one lifetime suicide attempt. All participants filled in the DS-d, the Entrapment Scale, the Rasch-based Depression Screening, the Depressive Symptoms Inventory - Suicidality Subscale, the Suicidal Behavior Questionnaire-Revised, the Childhood Trauma Screener, and the questionnaire Generalized Anxiety Disorders 2. Factorial validity was investigated through a unidimensional confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Moreover, internal consistency, convergent validity (correlations with the other measured constructs) and criterion validity (suicidality) were examined. One residual correlation between 2 items that are inversely coded had to be allowed to reach a satisfying fit to the unidimensional model (RMSEA=0.077, TLI=0.94, NFI=0.93, CFI=0.95; item loadings>0.56). The DS-d-sumscore correlated highly with depression (r=0.87), Entrapment (r=0.83) and suicidality (r=0.70), and moderately with the other constructs. Participants with suicidal thoughts or behavior in the past showed higher DS-d-scores than participants without suicidality. The unidimensional structure of the English version could be confirmed in the DS-d - after allowing for a residual correlation between two inversely coded items. Correlations with the other measured constructs give support for the validity of the DS-d. Criterion validity of the instrument is supported by its relations to suicidality. It remains open whether defeat and entrapment are 2 distinct constructs. In the current study - in accordance with the literature - both showed a very high intercorrelation. This study reports on the validation of a German version of the Defeat-Scale (DS-d) for the first time that shows good psychometric characteristics in terms of internal consistency and validity.