Resumen de The assessment of obsessive beliefs in adolescents

Eduardo Fonseca Pedrero, Serafín Lemos Giráldez, María de las Mercedes Paino Piñeiro, Ursula Villazón García, Susana Sierra Baigrie, José Muñiz Fernández

• The purpose of this paper was to study the psychometric properties of the Obsessional Beliefs Questionnaire-44 (OBQ-44) in nonclinical adolescents. Additionally, the factorial structure of obsessive cognitions and its relationship with obsessive-compulsive symptoms were also analysed. A sample of 508 adolescents was used, 49% of them being boys. The age range was 12-19, with a mean age of 14.9 (SD= 1.6).

  The results indicated that the OBQ-44 has good psychometric properties. The internal consistency of the subscales ranged from 0.77 to 0.86. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that both the three-factor (Responsibility/Threat estimation, Importance/Control of thoughts and Perfectionism/Certainty) and the four-factor (Importance/Control of thoughts, Responsibility, Perfectionism/Certainty, and Threat estimation) models showed an adequate fit to the data.

  Likewise, a statistically significant correlation was observed between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and obsessive beliefs. Consistent with previous literature, obsessive cognitions presented a multifactorial structure and were found to be associated to obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Hence, the OBQ-44 can be considered an adequate measurement instrument for the assessment of dysfunctional beliefs in nonclinical populations.