Psychometric Properties of the Turkish Version of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-Brief in Adolescents

Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-Brief (BIS-Brief) is a self-report scale that can be used to measure impulsivity in adolescents. In this study, it was aimed to determine the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the BIS-Brief in clinical and non-clinical adolescent samples.

The study included two groups of 116 psychiatric outpatients and 175 middle and high school students. For the re-test study, a small subgroup of the patient group (n=21) was re-applied BIS-Brief three weeks later. Socio-demographic data of the participants were collected. Aggression subscale of Childhood Behavior Checklist (CBCL), hyperactivity/impulsivity and anger control problems subscales of Conners-Wells' Adolescents Self-Report Scale-Long (CASS-L), and hyperactivity subscale of Conner's Parent Rating Scale-Short Form (CPRS-S) were administered.

The mean ages of the patient and control groups were 15.22±1.58 years and 15.16±1.86 years, respectively. There were 77 (66.4%) males in the patient group and 107 (61.1%) males in the control group. Cronbach's alphas for internal consistency were 0.78 (patient group) and 0.70 (control group). Three weeks test-retest reliability was 0.64 (patient group). We found a two-dimensional structure for the Turkish BIS-Brief. The BIS-Brief scores had a significant correlation with the scores of CBCL's aggression subscale (r=0.48; p<0.01), CASS-L's hyperactivity/impulsivity (r=0.45; p<0.01) and anger control problems subscales (r=0.45; p<0.01) and CPRS-S' hyperactivity subscale (r=0.21; p<0.01).

Our findings suggest that the Turkish version of the BIS-Brief is a reliable and valid measure for clinical and non-clinical adolescent samples. In addition, the results show that the BIS-Brief has a two-dimensional model in contrast to the unidimensional structure of the original scale.