[The reliability and validity of the White Bear Suppression Inventory]

The White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI) is a self-report questionnaire measuring tendency to suppress unwanted intrusive thoughts. The aim of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the WBSI in a Turkish sample.

Thirty patients who were diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) according to DSM-IV criteria and 47 healthy subjects were included in the study. Internal consistency and homogeneity were tested by Cronbach a and Pearson correlation analysis. Student's t test and Pearson correlation analysis were used for test-retest reliability. Validity was assessed by Student's t test in independent groups.

Psychometric analyses showed that the WBSI had a high internal consistency (a=0.92). All of the items' scores were positively correlated with the total scores. The items of the WBSI discriminated the patients with OCD from the healthy subjects except for item 5.

The Turkish version of the WBSI has appropriate reliability and validity for assessing suppression tendency of unwanted intrusive thoughts.