Reliability, Validity, and Factor Structure of the Persian Version of the Children Reinforcement Sensitivity Scale

Objectives The revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) has a decisive role in the different dimensions of behavior, emotions, personality and pathology of children. The goal of this research was to validate RST in children.
Methods The research is descriptive correlational. The statistical population included all school children in Hamedan City, Iran in 2018 academic year. Study participants included 417 children selected by multi-stage cluster sampling. Then RST, positive and negative affect and depression anxiety stress scales were distributed among them to respond. The reliability was assessed by alpha coefficient, test-retest and split-half coefficient, and validity was assessed with other questionnaires to determine the psychometric properties of RST. The confirmatory factor structure was assessed by confirmatory factor analysis.
Results Factor analysis indicated that RST has 3 factors and checking the validity of the inventory using Cronbach alpha, respectively for the factor fight-flight system, behavioral activation system, behavioral inhibition system (0.75, 0.76, 0.68) test-retest (0.48, 0.56, 0.61) and split-half coefficient (0.56, 0.51, 0.61) reflects the stability of the scale. The criterion validity of RST with other questionnaires indicated desirable discriminant and convergence validity (P<0.05).
Conclusion Overall, the findings indicate that RST has good psychometric properties in children, and can be used in studies in normal population. However, it seems that RST subscales has a low internal consistency in Iranian children in comparison with the original version