Psychometric characteristics for the Turkish version of the Bern Embitterment Inventory

Embitterment, which refers to a complex emotion that embraces various emotions such as helplessness, anger, hopelessness, dysphoria, and, simultaneously, a feeling of revenge following exposure to an unfair and negative, is a critical mental health issue with a rising prevalence rate. Thus, reliable assessment of embitterment is crucial for better understanding of this construct among Turkish individuals. The present study aimed to adapt the Bern Embitterment Inventory (BEI) to Turkish and to provide Turkish researchers a tool that will be an alternative to the existing measure of embitterment. The current study was conducted with 308 participants aged between 18 and 70 years (M = 35.81, SD = 12.25), and they were administered the BEI as well as Post-Traumatic Embitterment Inventory (PTEI) and scales assessing anger, anger rumination, emotion regulation difficulties, and depression. The confirmatory factor analysis performed on the Turkish version of the BEI yielded four factors, named as emotional embitterment, misanthropy, pessimism, and performance-based recognition (χ2 = 293,350, df = 129, χ2/df = 2.274, p < .001, TLI = .93, CFI = .94, SRMR = .05, RMSEA = .06 (90% CI: .05, .07)), with satisfactory reliability (αs between .70 and .92). Correlations with other study variables indicate evidence for concurrent validity (r’s between .380 and .722). Furthermore, both the BEI and its subscales were able to discriminate the clinically embittered individuals (p <. 001), which is evidence for criterion validity. The current study shows that Turkish version of the BEI has strong psychometric properties and can be used to measure embitterment.