Maladaptive Daydreaming: The German and the Dutch Versions of the 16-Item Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale

The 16-item Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale is a self-report measure translated into 37 languages, designed to capture the experience of compulsive and excessive daydreaming. In an online study comprised of monolingual and bilingual participants (N = 201), we examined the psychometric properties of the German and Dutch versions of the scale. We also explored associations of maladaptive daydreaming with fantasy proneness (i.e., characteristics associated with intensive immersion in fantasy) and counterfactual thinking (i.e., the ability to conceptualize alternative scenarios to reality). We found no differences between both language versions, suggesting equivalence. Also, reliabilities were adequate, and the four-factor structure was replicated. We confirmed previous findings of a positive correlation between fantasy proneness and maladaptive daydreaming (rho = .58, p < .01) but found no evidence that maladaptive daydreaming is associated with an increased capacity to generate counterfactuals, although our measure of this capacity was far from optimal. Other study limitations and further research approaches are discussed.