Investigating Latent Structure, Reliability, and Gender Differences for the Arabic Format of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale

Pain catastrophizing (PC) has been shown theoretically, clinically, and empirically to be a fundamental psychological construct to understanding and clinically managing the experience of pain. This significance has necessitated the development of psychometric measures of PC. Hence, the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) has been developed and subsequently translated/adapted to various languages and societies. An Arabic version of the PCS (PCS-A) has been adapted and tested in a Saudi sample. However, data regarding the underlying structure of the PCS-A has yet to be available. This study was set up to uncover the latent structure of the PCS-A, look at the reliability of the extracted structure, and test gender differences in it in a sample of 272 Saudi university students; 53.3% were women, with a mean age of 20.78 (± 1.67). A series of confirmatory factor analyses suggested a hierarchical latent structure for the PCS-A, comprising a second-order factor (α = 0.85) and three first-order factors corresponding to the original structure, as follows: rumination (4 items; α = 0.69), helplessness (6 items; α = 0.78), and magnification (3 items; α = 0.64). No gender differences were found on the PCS-A scores. Findings were discussed in light of previous literature on PCS and the cultural characteristics of Saudi society.