Abstract
The White Bear Suppression Inventory [WBSI; Wegner and Zanakos (1994)] was developed to assess the tendency to suppress unwanted thoughts. Most psychometric studies of the WBSI have included healthy students and adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder. There has been increasing interest in thought suppression in children and adolescents, especially after a traumatic event, but little is known about the psychometric properties of the WBSI for children. The aim of this research was to examine the psychometric qualities of the WBSI in a Dutch sample of children and adolescents. Two studies were conducted. First, the WBSI's factor structure, internal consistency and test-retest stability were examined in a sample of 203 primary school children (9-13 years). Second, the factor structure and content validity were assessed in 89 children and adolescents (8-18 years) who attended the emergency room after a road traffic accident. Results demonstrated that the WBSI items contribute to a single factor measuring the suppression of unwanted thoughts and that the reliability is satisfactory. Associations between the WBSI and PTSD-symptoms demonstrated sufficient content validity. The findings suggest that the WBSI can appropriately be used in child and adolescent samples. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 301-305 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Personality and Individual Differences |
Volume | 52 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Feb 2012 |
Keywords
- White Bear Suppression Inventory
- Thought suppression
- Children
- Factor structure
- POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER
- CHRONIC THOUGHT SUPPRESSION
- PTSD SYMPTOM SCALE
- RELIABILITY
- VALIDITY
- WBSI
- PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
- DISSOCIATION
- SPECIFICITY
- APPRAISALS