Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ): French Validation of a Transdiagnostic Measure of Repetitive Negative Thinking.

Faustine Devynck,Monika Kornacka,Monika Kornacka,Celine Baeyens,Philippe Tison,Caroline Delille,Jérémy Fonseca Das Neves,Jérémy Fonseca Das Neves,Olga Depraete,Éric Serra,Pierre Taquet,Pierre Taquet,Fabienne Sgard,Bulle Gaudrat,Bulle Gaudrat,Amélie Rousseau,Lucia Romo,Lucia Romo

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02159

Abstract

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a transdiagnostic process involved in the onset and maintenance of many psychological disorders. The Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (Ehring et al., 2011) is a content-independent scale composed of 15 items that assesses RNT from a transdiagnostic perspective in both clinical and general populations. The aim of the current research was to translate and validate the French version of the PTQ through two studies (total N = 1016) following the steps for the trans-cultural validation of psychometric instruments (Hambleton et al., 2006). An exploratory factor analysis conducted on a first community sample revealed a latent structure composed of 10 items distributed on one common factor, labeled RNT, and three subfactors that evaluated the repetitive characteristic of RNT, the intrusiveness of RNT and the effect of RNT on mental resources. This factorial structure was confirmed in two confirmatory factor analyses in community and clinical samples. Scale score reliability indices were good and confirmed the validity of the instrument. The French version of the PTQ is a good content-independent instrument to assess RNT in general and clinical populations of French speakers.

Highlights

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is defined as excessive and repetitive thinking about negative topics that is experienced as difficult to control (Ehring and Watkins, 2008)
To compare the Spearman r-values and determine whether correlations between the Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ) and subscales of RNT were different, Fisher’s r-to-z transformation and the Meng test of two correlations with one variable in common from the same sample were used (Meng et al, 1992). These analyses revealed that the correlation between the PTQ–total score and the RRS–Brooding subscale was significantly higher than between the PTQ–total score and the RRS–Reflection subscale (0.54 vs. 0.34, p < 0.05)
The confirmatory factor analysis conducted in the second community sample and in the clinical sample in Study 2 demonstrated that the best model was a bifactor model with RNT as common factor and three subfactors: the first factor, measuring the difficulties of disengaging from RNT and the repetitiveness of RNT, is composed of four items; the second factor, assessing the capture of mental resources by RNT, is composed of three items; and the third factor, which assesses the intrusiveness of RNT, is composed of three items

Summary

Introduction

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is defined as excessive and repetitive thinking about negative topics that is experienced as difficult to control (Ehring and Watkins, 2008) This cognitive process is an emotion regulation strategy involved in the development, maintenance and recurrence of a large number of disorders, such as anxiety disorders (Ehring and Ehlers, 2014; Arditte et al, 2016), depression (Nolen-Hoeksema et al, 2008; Watkins, 2008), Validation of the French PTQ alcohol use disorders (Caselli et al, 2013), eating disorders (Nolen-Hoeksema et al, 2007), and pain disorders (Edwards et al, 2011). These shared characteristics lead us to consider rumination and worry as a transdiagnostic process involved in the onset and maintenance of disorders that are not limited to depression and GAD (Ehring and Watkins, 2008)

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Conclusion