Yale-Brown Obsession Compulsion Scale–Turkish Self Report Form: A study of reliability and validity

Yale-Brown Obsession Compulsion Scale (YBOCS) is one of the most commonly used instruments to assess the severity of symptoms related to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) both in clinical settings and in empirical studies. Self-report version of this scale has been developed, considering the limitations such that the need of an administrator and time-consuming application of the semi-structured interview version. The aim of the present study was to examine the validity and reliability properties of Turkish version of YBOCS–Self Report both in clinical and nonclinical sample. Current study was carried out with 267 adult participants (117 patients diagnosed with OCD and 150 healthy controls) between the ages of 18 and 58 (M = 28.33, SD = 7.57). Participants were asked to fill out demographic information form and YBOCS–Self Report. In addition, YBOCS-Clinician Administered version was administered to some of the participants (n = 56) via semi structured interview. The results of the explanatory factor analysis revealed that YBOCS–Self Report had one factor structure measuring the severity of OCD symptoms. The internal consistency of the scale was found to be very good in clinical, nonclinical and overall sample. In addition, self-report version was highly correlated with clinician administered version; and acceptable validity was achieved in differentiating participants diagnosed with OCD from healthy controls. These findings revealed that Turkish version of YBOCS–Self Report is a valid and reliable instrument to assess the severity of OCD related symptoms both in clinical and non-clinical individuals. Self-report version, which is more practical in application and scoring, has good psychometric properties as well as clinician administered version.