Psychometric Properties of the Arabic Version of the Obsessive Compulsive Beliefs Questionnaire-44 in a Student Population

Objective: we examined the psychometric properties of the arabicversion of the obsessive compulsive beliefs questionnaire-44 (obq-44)in a sample of kuwait university students. this questionnaire wasdeveloped by the obsessive compulsive cognitions working group inorder to assess belief domains believed to be crucial in the developmentof obsessive compulsive symptoms.method: the arabic version of the obq-44 was developed according tothe standard translation and back-translation methods. the arabicversions of the obq-44, the maudsley obsessive - compulsive inventory(moci), and beck depression inventory-revised (bdi-ii) were thenadministered on a sample of 200 kuwait university students from thefaculty of humanities chosen through random cluster sampling. retestwas administered within a 4 week time period.results: the results of principle component factor analysis with varimaxrotation indicated 6 factors which overlapped to a high degree. a 3 factorsolution was chosen based on the scree plot and factor loadings whichexplained 36.12% of the variance. the factors were labeled asresponsibility and threat estimation (rt), importance and control ofthought (ict) and perfectionism/certainty (pc). the reliability coefficientof the three factors and the total score were assessed using threemethods: internal consistency, test-retest reliability and split-halfreliability. results showed an acceptable internal consistency for thearabic version of the obq-44. regarding the validity of obq-44, theinstrument correlated with the total score of moci and most of itssubscales .conclusion: these data support the reliability and validity of the obq-44 in a sample of kuwait university students