Measurement of mental pain: Psychometric properties and confirmatory factor analysis of multidimensional mental pain questionnaire

mental pain is a psychological experience, including negative self-evaluation; therefore, it should be measured by self-report tools. The aim of the present study was to determine factor structure and psychometric properties of Mental Pain Scale.
this was correlational study and its statistic population consisted all students of the University of Razi Kermanshah. The sample included 300 of these students selected via multi-stage random cluster sampling method. The data was analyzed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis by SPSS-22 and AMOS-21 software.
the results showed a significant positive correlation among components of mental pain, anxiety, depression, and negative cognitive emotional regulation strategies (P≥0.001). Also, a significant positive correlation was found among components of mental pain and self-compassion (P≥0.001). The results of the exploratory factor analysis identified 6 factors, which in total, explained 66.40% of the variance in mental pain. 44 items in 6 factors were validated by confirmatory factor analysis. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.966 for the whole MPS, 0.925 for emptiness, 0.893 for emotional flooding, 0.877 for loss of control, 0.872 for irreversibility, 0.869 for self-estrangement, and 0.617 for freezing.
Persian version of Mental Pain Scale has acceptable psychometric properties among academic students and can be used as a valid tool in psychological research.