The validity and reliability of the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale in women with tension-type headaches

Aim and Background: Examining fear of negative evaluation as one of psychological causes in headaches is important. The aim of the present study was to investigate validation and psychometric properties of the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (BFNES, Leary, 1983) in a group of women with tension-type headaches. Methods and Materials: A total of 110 women with tension-type headaches in Isfahan in the year of 2019 were selected through purposeful sampling method, and responded to BFNES.‌‌‌ To examine validity and reliability of the scale, convergent validity and confirmatory factor analysis and internal consistency method, the split-half validity and mixed validity were used, respectively‌‌‌.‌‌‌ Data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software‌‌‌. Findings: Cronbach's alpha, mixed and split-half coefficients for BFNES were 0‌‌‌.97, 0‌‌‌.94 and 0‌‌‌.86, respectively. The index of convergent validity of the scale was obtained as 0‌‌‌. 81. Furthermore, the results of factor analysis showed that all items had a high factor load more than 0‌‌‌.40, and the single-factor structure of BFNES fitted well with the data. Conclusions‌‌‌: The Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale showed good psychometric properties clinical and research purposes in women with tension-type headaches‌‌‌.