Turkish adaptation of the scale of dissociative activities

Abstract

BackgroundDissociation refers to detachment, absorption, amnesia, and compartmentalization. It may work as a defense mechanism against stress and traumatic experiences. It can even take the form of forgetting or daydreaming to shift the focus away from daily experiences. A metric to quantify dissociative behaviors greatly aids in determining when these transition into pathological. AimsTherefore, this study aims to translate and adapt a scale of dissociative activities (Mayer & Farmer, 2003) into Turkish. MethodToward this end, a sample of university students and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used. ResultsAccording to EFA, subcategories of dissociation loaded to both factors, so one dimensional structure of the scale was deemed to solve cross-loading of subcategories. CFA provided valid evidence to one dimensional structure of the scale, Chi² (527) = 1398.39, p < 0.05, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.96, standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) = 0.067, the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.10, 90% CI for RMSEA [0.097, 0.11]). The Cronbach alpha for the scale was 0.96 for the first (N = 178) and second (N = 216) data sets. Convergent validity was also determined for the translated version of this scale. ConclusionThe findings from these analyses indicated that the Turkish version of the scale of dissociative activities had a one-factor structure and seemed to be reliable and valid among Turkish university students. This newly adapted scale should facilitate the diagnosis and comparative studies concerning the tendency or symptoms of dissociation.