Russian Adaptation of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale

Abstract

The article presents the results of the adaptation of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale, which consists of three subscales (Rumination, Magnification and Helplessness) in a sample of 219 people (80,4% females). The average age of the participants was 22,05 years (median= 19,00 years, standard deviation=6,74; age range from 18 to 54 years). The Russian-language version of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale shows acceptable reliability for the scales (Cronbach’s alpha = 0,82; 0,67 and 0,83, respectively), and high reliability in general (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.89). Estimates of pain catastrophizing are positively correlated with the estimates of pain strength and intensity (McGill Pain Questionnaire, adapted by V. Kuzmenko in 1986), as well as with the level of self-control (Brief Self-Control Scale by J.P. Tangney, R.F. Baumeister and A.L. Boone, adapted by T. Gordeeva et al. in 2016): catastrophizing people, as a rule, have a lower level of self-control. Fit indices of confirmatory factor analysis (RMSEA=0,08; χ2/df=2.5; GFI=0.90; SRMR=0.7) characterize one- and three-factor models of pain catastrophizing as reasonable. Women showed a higher level of catastrophic pain in general, and differences were also found on the scale of Rumination, while there were no statistically significant differences on the scales of Magnification and Helplessness. Pain Catastrophizing is also positively correlated with anxiety and depression (HADS adapted by M. Drobizhev in 1993).

Keywords

• pain
• the pain catastrophizing scale
• questionnaire adaptation
• self-control
• anxiety
• depression