Validation and psychometric properties of the Persian version of the 24 item Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale among Iranian students

The 24-item Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS-24) is a short version of the scale with a similar name, which is utilized to measure depressogenic negative attitudes.  Although this measure was utilized in many countries it has not been validated in Iran. The main aim of the present research was to study the factorial structure and psychometric properties of  DAS-24. The research method is correlational and validation. The sample size consisted of 1416 graduate and postgraduate students from some universities in the cities of Mashhad and Neyshabour in 2017. Students were recruited through convenience sampling. Participants responded to the dysfunctional attitudes scale (Power et al, 1994) and the human flourishing questionnaire (Soleimani et al, 1396). In order to measure the internal consistency of the scale, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was utilized. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine the factorial structure. Divergent validity was measured through the correlation between flourish-related factors and dysfunctional attitudes. Findings demonstrated the negative and significant correlations between dysfunctional attitudes and flourish subscales (p<0.01). Internal consistencies of dysfunctional attitudes were acceptable (α>0.6). confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the three-factor model consisted of achievement, self-control and dependency have high levels of the goodness of fit. It can be concluded that DAS-24 is a reliable and valid instrument in the Iranian population.