The development and psychometric properties of a self-report Catastrophizing Questionnaire

TY - JOUR

T1 - The development and psychometric properties of a self-report Catastrophizing Questionnaire

AU - Pike, Alexandra C.

AU - Serfaty, Jade R.

AU - Robinson, Oliver J.

N1 - © 2021 The Authors. Funding Information: Funding. This work was supported by a Medical Research Council senior non-clinical fellowship (MR/R020817/1) to O.J.R.; and a Biomedical Vacation Scholarship awarded to J.R.S. by the Wellcome Trust (218411_Z_19_Z_UCL). Acknowledgements. We are also grateful for helpful conversations with Professors Paul Burgess, Roz Shafran, John Cape and Vaughan Bell. Finally, the authors would like to thank the other members of the Neuroscience and Mental Health Group for their help with brainstorming and piloting.

PY - 2021/1/13

Y1 - 2021/1/13

N2 - Catastrophizing is a cognitive process that can be defined as predicting the worst possible outcome. It has been shown to be related to psychiatric diagnoses such as depression and anxiety, yet there are no self-report questionnaires specifically measuring it outside the context of pain research. Here, we therefore develop a novel, comprehensive self-report measure of general catastrophizing. We performed five online studies (total n = 734), in which we created and refined a Catastrophizing Questionnaire, and used a factor analytic approach to understand its underlying structure. We also assessed convergent and discriminant validity, and analysed test-retest reliability. Furthermore, we tested the ability of Catastrophizing Questionnaire scores to predict relevant clinical variables over and above other questionnaires. Finally, we also developed a four-item short version of this questionnaire. We found that our questionnaire is best fit by a single underlying factor, and shows convergent and discriminant validity. Exploratory factor analyses indicated that catastrophizing is independent from other related constructs, including anxiety and worry. Moreover, we demonstrate incremental validity for this questionnaire in predicting diagnostic and medication status. Finally, we demonstrate that our Catastrophizing Questionnaire has good test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.77, p < 0.001). Critically, we can now, for the first time, obtain detailed self-report data on catastrophizing.

AB - Catastrophizing is a cognitive process that can be defined as predicting the worst possible outcome. It has been shown to be related to psychiatric diagnoses such as depression and anxiety, yet there are no self-report questionnaires specifically measuring it outside the context of pain research. Here, we therefore develop a novel, comprehensive self-report measure of general catastrophizing. We performed five online studies (total n = 734), in which we created and refined a Catastrophizing Questionnaire, and used a factor analytic approach to understand its underlying structure. We also assessed convergent and discriminant validity, and analysed test-retest reliability. Furthermore, we tested the ability of Catastrophizing Questionnaire scores to predict relevant clinical variables over and above other questionnaires. Finally, we also developed a four-item short version of this questionnaire. We found that our questionnaire is best fit by a single underlying factor, and shows convergent and discriminant validity. Exploratory factor analyses indicated that catastrophizing is independent from other related constructs, including anxiety and worry. Moreover, we demonstrate incremental validity for this questionnaire in predicting diagnostic and medication status. Finally, we demonstrate that our Catastrophizing Questionnaire has good test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.77, p < 0.001). Critically, we can now, for the first time, obtain detailed self-report data on catastrophizing.

KW - anxiety disorders

KW - catastrophizing

KW - cognitive distortions

KW - mood disorders

KW - psychiatry

KW - self-report questionnaire

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100924614&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1098/rsos.201362

DO - 10.1098/rsos.201362

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85100924614

SN - 2054-5703

VL - 8

JO - Royal Society Open Science

JF - Royal Society Open Science

IS - 1

M1 - 201362

ER -