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Underlying Structure of Ruminative Thinking: Factor Analysis of the Ruminative Thought Style Questionnaire

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Abstract

The Ruminative Thought Style Questionnaire (RTSQ) is a 20-item measure assessing a single dimension of rumination over and above valence, temporal orientation of thought content, and the cognitive-affective context in which it occurs. The current study examined the factor structure of rumination as measured by the RTSQ, and whether findings of its initial validation study could be replicated within an adolescent sample (N = 2,362). An exploratory factor analysis and a subsequent confirmatory factor analysis were undertaken on two subsamples (n = 1,181) which did not significantly differ in gender and age. Five items with factor loadings of <.50 or cross loadings of >.30 on a second factor were removed. As hypothesised, an exploratory factor analysis on the final 15 items demonstrated the RTSQ was comprised of four rumination subcomponents, labelled “Problem-Focused Thoughts”, “Counterfactual Thinking”, “Repetitive Thoughts”, and “Anticipatory Thoughts”. A confirmatory factor analysis supported this, contrary to the initial validation study. Each of these subscales had differential contributions to psychological distress and coping styles in separate multiple regressions. Our findings support the increasing body of evidence suggesting a multidimensional structure for rumination, and clinical implications are noted.

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Fig. 1

Notes

  1. PCAs were conducted to enable comparisons with Brinker and Dozois’ (2009) initial validation study which utilised the same method.

  2. Following feedback from anonymous reviewers, a comparison data method for factor extraction (see Ruscio and Roche 2012) was undertaken which suggested a 5-factor solution. Results of an oblique rotation showed that item loadings on three factors were retained, and that four of the five deleted items had factor loadings on two factors that ranged from .3–.4. Four items loaded onto a 5th factor (R15, R16, R17, R18); R16 had no cross-loadings (factor loading = .87), R17 had a factor loading of .31 and a cross-loading on the 4th factor of .81, and R15 and R18 had cross-loadings in the .3 - .4 range. Applying Floyd and Widaman’s (1995) recommendation as with the initial analyses, the 5th factor would consist of only one item. Therefore, analysis of a 5-factor solution was not pursued further.

  3. Following feedback from anonymous reviewers and in accordance with the observations of Simmons, Nelson, and Simonsohn (2011), analyses were undertaken which included (1) the multivariate outliers that were initially excluded, and (2) imputed data using Expectation Maximisation (Tabachnick and Fidell 2007) for the 220 participants who completed at least one item on the RTSQ. For both EFAs and CFAs performed with these datasets, the 4-factor structure of the RTSQ identified in the initial analyses reported was stable and performed better compared with the alternative models tested.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Sophie Aitken, Tori Andrews, Emily Berger, Lauren Friend, and Cassandra Rotolone in data collection and data entry. This study was funded by a grant from the Australian Research Council.

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Tanner, A., Voon, D., Hasking, P. et al. Underlying Structure of Ruminative Thinking: Factor Analysis of the Ruminative Thought Style Questionnaire. Cogn Ther Res 37, 633–646 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-012-9492-1

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