Author(s)

Giti Shams, Elham Foroughi, Melanie W. Moretz, Bunmi O. Olatunji

Department of Psychology, School of Behavioral Science, The University of Melbourne,Melbourne, Australia.
Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA.
Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University, New York, USA.
Roozbeh Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Although a growing body of research has implicated disgust in the etiology of a variety of anxiety disorders, there remains a paucity of research examining this phenomenon across different cultures. The present study examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of a newly adapted Persian Disgust Scale-Revised (PDS-R). A large sample (n = 374) of Iranian students completed the PDS-R and other symptom measures of psychopathology including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Results showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the PDS-R. Confirmatory factor analysis found support for two- and three-factor models of the PDS-R. However, examination of internal consistency estimates suggests that a two-factor model of contagion disgust and animal-reminder disgust may be more parsimonious. The PDS-R total and subscale scores displayed theoretically consistent patterns of correlations with symptom measures of psychopathology. Structural equation modeling also revealed that latent disgust sensitivity, defined by the contagion disgust and animal-reminder disgust subscales of the PDS-R, was significantly associated with latent symptoms of contamination and non-contamination-based OCD when controlling for latent negative affect. The implications of these findings for the cross-cultural assessment of disgust in the context of anxiety related pathology are discussed.

Persian Disgust; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; Contagion

Shams, G. , Foroughi, E. , Moretz, M. & Olatunji, B. (2013). Factor Structure and Psychometric Properties of the Persian Disgust Scale-Revised: Examination of Specificity to Symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Psychology, 4, 526-534. doi: 10.4236/psych.2013.46075.