Psychometric Properties of the Metacognitions about Gambling Questionnaire among Iranian University Students as a normal population

Gambling disorder (GD) is an addictive disorder that is not considered as much as other addictive disorders, and therefore psychometric instruments to diagnosis and treat of GD are limited. The purpose of the present study was to standardize the metacognition about gambling questionnaire (MGQ) among university students. The participants in this study were 99 (58 females and 41 males) undergraduate and postgraduate students who were they selected via snowball sampling. Participants completed an online Persian format of the MGQ and the GD checklist. The results have indicated that this questionnaire has good psychometric properties. The reliability of this questionnaire with internal consistency of Cronbach's alpha was 0.85, and the split-half was 0.84; the composite reliability for positive and negative metacognitive sub-scales were 0.86 and 0.84, respectively. The validity of this questionnaire was as a criterion validity with the GD checklist for positive and negative metacognitive sub-scales of 0.58 and 0.72, respectively. The construct validity was 0.95, and the discriminant validity was in the range of 0.72 to 0.93; in addition, the convergent validity for positive and negative metacognitive sub-scales, respectively, were 0.56 and 0.52, respectively; and finally the unidimensionality of markers was confirmed. Finally, the 10-question form was confirmed by the two-component model of the questionnaire with a prediction power of 0.95. Based on these findings, the MGQ is a standard instrument that can be used in research and practice by clinical psychologists and researchers involved in gambling disorder.