Psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Barratt impulsiveness scale-11

Objective: Impulsivity is an important clinical feature of many different psychiatric disorders. The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale version 11 is one of the scales mostly used to measure impulsivity and currently it does not have a validated Turkish version. The aim of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11), Method: The Turkish version of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 was administered to 237 college undergraduates and 83 psychiatric patients with bipolar disorders, and substance dependence. The internal consistency reliabilities of the Turkish version of BIS-11 and its subscales were assessed for each sample, by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Pearson correlations were applied to examine test-retest reliabilities of the Turkish version of BIS-11. The factor validity of the Turkish version of BIS-11 was calculated in the college students, using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Results: Based on analyses using factor validity, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, discriminating power for specific group's validity and concurrent validity, and all items from the English version of the BIS-11 were retained in the Turkish version. An exploratory principal-components analysis replicated the six first-orders factors and three second-order factors, consistent with the number identified in the English version. However, subscale item loadings differed between the English and Turkish versions. Cronbach's alphas for internal consistency were 0.78 (students) and 0.81 (patients), and two-month test-retest reliability was 0.83 (students). The BIS-11 significantly differentiated with between age and gender-matched student group and patients' group. The BIS-11 total score was also significantly correlated with aggression, neuroticism, psychoticism, anger-trait, anger-control, and anger-out. Conclusions: The findings showed that the Turkish version of the BIS-11 had good test-retest reliability and acceptable internal consistency reliability. In addition, the Turkish version could be accepted to have similar factor structure to the original one. Despite some limitations, the Turkish version of BIS-11 is a reliable and valid measure that could be used to assess impulsiveness in both non-clinical samples and psychiatric patients.