Reliability and factorial structure of an Arabic translation of the Self-Consciousness Scale

An Arabic translation of Fenigstein, Scheier, and Buss's 1975 Self-consciousness scale was administered to 254 United Arab Emirates University undergraduate students, 99 men and 155 women with a mean age of 24 years. A factor analysis of the intercorrelations indicated the same general factors as in the original and other replicating studies. This study, however, differed from them in item loadings and distribution of items within the three factors of the scale. Other factor solutions were also tried and reported. Differences between men and women were also noted. In contrast with previous studies, the Arabic version showed differences in the magnitude of correlations among subscales. These differences were discussed in the light of cross-cultural and Arabic studies showing the influence of culture.