Abstract

Objective: Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS) is developed by Simons and Gaher in order to measure individual differences in the capacity of distress tolerance.The aim of this study is to assess the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of DTS.
Method: One hundred and sixty seven university students (male=66, female=101) participated in this study. Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), State-trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Discomfort Intolerance Scale (DIS) were used to determine the criterion validity. Construct validity was evaluated with factor analysis after the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Barlett test had been performed. To assess the test-retest reliability, the scale was re-applied to 79 participants six weeks later.
Results: To assess construct validity, factor analyses were performed using varimax principal components analysis with varimax rotation. While there were factors in the original study, our factor analysis resulted in three factors. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the entire scale and tolerance, regulation, self-efficacy subscales were .89, .90, .80 and .64 respectively. There were correlations at the level of 0.01 between the Trait Anxiety Inventory of STAI and BAI, and all the subscales of DTS and also between the State Anxiety Inventory and regulation subscale. Both of the subscales of DIS were correlated with the entire subscale and all the subscales except regulation at the level of 0.05.Test-retest reliability was statistically significant at the level of 0.01.
Conclusion: Analysis demonstrated that DTS had a satisfactory level of reliability and validity in Turkish university students.

Key words: Anxiety, reliability, validity