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Re-examination of the Latent Structure of the Distress Intolerance Index

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Abstract

Distress intolerance (DI) has been identified as an important risk and maintenance factor for numerous psychological disorders (McHugh & Otto, Behavior Therapy, 43, 641–651, 2012; Zvolensky et al. 2011). However, the study of DI has been complicated by varying definitions of the construct and the development of different measures DI. Recognizing the need for a standard measurement instrument, McHugh & Otto, Behavior Therapy, 43, 641–651, (2012) sought to develop a measure of global DI by integrating four existing measures of DI and related constructs—the Distress Intolerance Index (DII). Although the DII has demonstrated reliability and validity across several studies, no study to date has replicated the factor structure of the DII presented by McHugh and Otto, Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 25, 745–749 (2011). Therefore, the current study aimed to examine the factor structure of the DII in both an undergraduate and clinical sample. Participants were N= 227 university students and N = 262 patients diagnosed with OCD, depression, and anxiety disorders who completed the DII. Results indicated that the original DII factor structure fit the clinical sample data adequately; however, minor revisions were necessary to produce adequate fit in the undergraduate sample. The DII demonstrated convergent and discriminate validity with measures of psychological symptom severity and affect. Additional investigation of the psychometric properties of the DII is warranted to clarify its factor structure and utility.

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Notes

  1. The DII has a five-response Likert scale, which can be considered either ordinal or continuous (Bandalos and Finney 2010). Given the conceptualization of distress intolerance as a continuous construct and the approximately normal distribution of scores across items, we elected to examine the DII conceptualizing the data as continuous rather than ordinal.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, 1125 Lincoln Drive, Carbondale, IL, 62901, USA

    Keith P. Klein, Emily M. Bartholomay, Kimberly T. Stevens, Eva K. Harris & Sarah J. Kertz

  2. Behavioral Health Partial Hospital Program, McLean Hospital – Harvard Medical School, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA, 02478, USA

    Keith P. Klein, Thröstur Björgvinsson & Sarah J. Kertz

  3. Anxiety Disorders Center, Institute of Living, 200 Retreat Ave, Hartford, CT, 06101, USA

    Kimberly T. Stevens

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  1. Keith P. Klein
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  2. Emily M. Bartholomay
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  3. Kimberly T. Stevens
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  4. Eva K. Harris
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  5. Thröstur Björgvinsson
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  6. Sarah J. Kertz
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection REMOVED FOR BLIND REVIEW, REMOVED FOR BLIND REVIEW, and REMOVED FOR BLIND REVIEW. Hypotheses and analytical plan were developed by REMOVED FOR BLIND REVIEW, REMOVED FOR BLIND REVIEW, REMOVED FOR BLIND REVIEW, and REMOVED FOR BLIND REVIEW. Analysis were performed by REMOVED FOR BLIND REVIEW and REMOVED FOR BLIND REVIEW. The first draft of the manuscript was written by REMOVED FOR BLIND REVIEW and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Keith P. Klein.

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All procedures in the current study were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of Institution review committee at Southern Illinois University - Carbondale and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Klein, K.P., Bartholomay, E.M., Stevens, K.T. et al. Re-examination of the Latent Structure of the Distress Intolerance Index. J Cogn Ther 14, 305–319 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41811-021-00103-z

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