Juan C. Suárez-Falcón

General Health Questionnaire-12 validity in Colombia and factorial equivalence between clinical and nonclinical participants

The General Health Questionnaire - 12 (GHQ-12) is a widely used screening self-report for emotional disorders among adults. However, there is little evidence concerning the validity of the GHQ-12 in Colombia and its factorial invariance between nonclinical and clinical samples. Accordingly, the current study aims to explore the GHQ-12 validity in Colombian nonclinical and clinical samples. The GHQ-12 was administered to a total of 1641 participants, including a sample of undergraduates, one of general population, and a clinical sample. The internal consistency of the GHQ-12 across samples was good (overall alpha of .90). The one-factor model showed a good fit to the data and was considered theoretically more coherent than the two-factor model with positive and negative items loading in separate factors. Metric and scalar invariance were observed across nonclinical and clinical samples. The GHQ-12 scores were strongly and positively related to emotional symptoms and experiential avoidance, and negatively related to life satisfaction. According to the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, a threshold score of 11/12 was optimal to identify emotional disorders. In conclusion, the GHQ-12 is a valid screening self-report in Colombia that provides scores that can be compared across clinical and nonclinical participants.

The Spanish version of the Believability of Anxious Feelings and Thoughts Questionnaire

BACKGROUND Cognitive fusion is suggested to play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders according to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. This study presents the psychometric data of the Spanish version of a cognitive fusion measure in the context of anxiety: the Believability of Anxious Feelings and Thoughts Questionnaire (BAFT). METHOD First, we back-translated the BAFT into Spanish and then, administered it to three samples, with a total of 598 participants, in addition to other relevant anxiety measures. RESULTS Data were very similar to those obtained with the original BAFT version. The BAFT showed a very good internal consistency (overall α= .92) and a hierarchical factor structure with two lower-order factors and one hierarchical factor. Participants showing mild levels of anxiety symptoms scored higher on the BAFT than participants who scored below the cutoffs. BAFT scores were significantly related to anxiety symptoms and to measures of psychological inflexibility, anxiety sensitivity, and mindfulness facets. Moreover, the BAFT showed incremental validity relative to anxiety sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS This Spanish version of the BAFT emerges as a reliable and valid measure of cognitive fusion with anxious thoughts and feelings.

A multiple-baseline evaluation of a brief acceptance and commitment therapy protocol focused on repetitive negative thinking for moderate emotional disorders

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) in the form of worry and rumination has been identified as a particularly counterproductive experiential avoidance strategy implicated in the onset and maintenance of emotional disorders. The current study analyzes the effect of an individual, 2-session, RNT-focused, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) protocol in the treatment of moderate emotional disorders. Ten adults suffering from moderate to severe emotional symptoms according to the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) and the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) participated in the study. Participants completed 5to 7-week baselines without showing improvement trends in the DASS-21 or the GHQ-12. Afterwards, they received the ACT protocol, and a 3-month follow-up was conducted. A Bayesian approach to analyze clinically significant changes (CSC) for single-case experimental designs (SCED) was conducted, which required at least substantial evidence of the intervention effect and scores in the nonclinical range. Nine of the 10 participants showed CSC in the GHQ-12, and 7 participants in the DASS-21. The standardized mean difference effect sizes for SCED were computed, which facilitates comparison and integration of the results with group designs. Very large effect sizes were found for emotional symptoms (d = 2.44 and 2.68), pathological worry (d = 3.14), experiential avoidance (d = 1.32), cognitive fusion (d = 2.01), repetitive thinking (d = 2.51), and valued living (d = 1.54 and 1.41). No adverse events were found. RNT-focused ACT protocols deserve further empirical tests.

Validity Evidence of the Spanish Version of the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire–8 in Colombia

The Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ) is a widely used, 30-item, 5-point Likert-type scale that measures the frequency of negative automatic thoughts as experienced by individuals suffering from depression. However, there is some controversy about the factor structure of the ATQ, and its application can be too time-consuming for survey research. Accordingly, an abbreviated, 8-item version of the ATQ has been proposed. The aim of this study was to analyze the validity evidence of the Spanish version of the ATQ-8 in Colombia. The ATQ-8 was administered to a total of 1587 participants, including a sample of undergraduates, one of general population, and a clinical sample. The internal consistency across the different samples was good (α = .89). The one-factor model found in the original scale showed a good fit to the data (RMSEA = .083, 90% CI [.074, .092]; CFI = .96; NNFI = .95). The clinical samples mean score on the ATQ-8 was significantly higher than the scores of the nonclinical samples. The ATQ-8 was sensitive to the effects of a 1-session acceptance and commitment therapy focused on disrupting negative repetitive thinking. ATQ-8 scores were significantly related to dysfunctional schemas, emotional symptoms, mindfulness, experiential avoidance, satisfaction with life, and dysfunctional attitudes. In conclusion, the Spanish version of the ATQ-8 showed good psychometric properties in Colombia.