The “disgust scale”: adaptation of the Russian-language version on a Russian sample of female students

Introduction. Currently, the studies of biopsychosocial mechanisms of the induction of affective states, their role in psychological defense, as well as the global problems of prophylaxis of personality disorders, psychosomatic disorders, and victimhood are of particular relevance. Russian psychologists point out a deficit of diagnostic tools to identify sensitivity and tolerance to affective stimuli, including those of endogenous nature. Aim: to adapt the Disgust Scale-Revised on a Russian sample of female students. Materials and methods. Psychometric results were obtained on the data of a heterogeneous sample of 375 female university students with a mean age of 19.71 years, SD = 1.39. Internal consistency and retest reliability were evaluated by the Cronbach’s alpha test, the Pearson correlation test, and the Students’ t test for paired data. Test validity was determined by comparing the test results with the frequency of behavioral responses caused by exposure to an affective stimulus that induced disgust. Results. The values of the integral indicator and subscales are considered normal with respect to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Data normalization was performed using centile analysis, where less than 1.73 c.u. was tolerant to disgust and more than 2.48 c.u. was sensitive to disgust. The internal consistency of the test was considered “good” with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.87. Satisfactory results of retest reliability were obtained on a dependent sample (n = 367) a year after the first test. The validity of the Disgust Scale-Revised was assessed by comparing the test data and the results of the frequency analysis of behavioral responses to affective stimuli. It was shown that people sensitive to disgust were significantly more likely to demonstrate behavioral responses in all patterns. Conclusion. The results obtained from a Russian sample of female students demonstrate that this diagnostic tool is reliable and valid for the assessment of sensitivity to disgust.