Psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the schizotypal personality questionnaire in Tunisian university students

ABSTRACT

The schizotypal personality disorder is considered as a marker of schizophrenia proneness. The schizotypal personality questionnaire [SPQ] is an instrument to help to the diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder extensively studied in the literature. To assess psychometric properties [reliability and factor structure] of the Arabic version of the SPQ in a sample of Tunisian university students. The sample included 490 students [145 males and 345 females; mean age 20.4 +/- 1.4 years], from the faculty of medicine and the health sciences school of Monastir. Thirty-three students participated in the second assessment of the SPQ three months later. Cronbach's [alpha] internal consistency reliability coefficients were 0.92 for the total SPQ and from 0.62 to 0.75 for the SPQ subscales. The test-retest reliability was good with the intraclass correlation coefficients equal to 0.83 for the total SPQ and from 0.67 to 0.87 for the SPQ subscales [P<0.0001]. Factor analysis indicated that the three-factor model [positive or cognitive-perceptual, negative or interpersonal, and disorganized] and the four-factor model [cognitive-perceptual, paranoid, interpersonal, and disorganized] have provided a good fit to the data, accounting for 70.7% and 77.3% of the total variance of the scale, respectively. The results showed that the Arabic version of the SPQ had adequate psychometric properties and confirmed the multidimensional structure of the schizotypal personality in nonclinical populations