Reliability and validity of Turkish Form of DSM-5 Severity Measure for Specific Phobia

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to demonstrate the reliability and validity of the Turkish form of DSM-5 Severity Measure for Specific Phobia Scale which was developed according to DSM-5 criteria to measure the severity of specific phobia. Methods: This study was carried out with patients with a diagnosis of any anxiety disorder according to DSM-5 criteria who are under treatment in Celal Bayar University Faculty of Medicine Psychiatry Inpa-tient or Outpatient Clinics. Patients with any mental or physical disease except for anxiety disorders were excluded. Accordingly, 50 patients with anxiety disorder were included in the study. One hundred and three volunteers without any mental or physical disease were included as healthy control group. Beside DSM-5 Severity Measure for Speci-fic Phobia Scale the most widely used self-rated scale, Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory was used for concurrent validity. In reliability analyses internal consistency coefficient and item-total correlation analysis; in validi-ty analyses factor analysis and correlation analysis with the Pearson Correlation Analysis were performed. Results: The mean age of the study group was 29.0±11.8 and 60.1% of the sample group (n=92) were female. 66.0% of the sample group were college graduates, 12.4% high school graduates, 21.6% were also primary school graduates. Disease duration of anxiety disorder group was 5.8±7.0 years. The internal consistency of the DSM-5 Severity Mea-sure for Specific Phobia Scale was 0.79 and item-total correlation coefficients were between 0.33 and 0.78. In the explanatory factor analysis, for sample adequacy Kaiser-Meier-Olkin coefficient was calculated as 0.88 and Bartlett coefficient was 1.01. Double-factor solution was obtained and the eigenvalues were 5.45 and 1.26, explaining 67.20% of the total variance. Factor loadings of the items were between 0.43 and 0.88. Coefficient of correlation analysis with Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory was calculated as r=0.36. Conclusion: These findings have been shown that the DSM-5 Severity Measure for Specific Phobia Scale is reliable and valid for Turkish.