Abstract

OLMEDILLA ZAFRA, Aurelio; ORTEGA TORO, Enrique  and  ABENZA CANO, Lucía. Validation of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale in Spanish athletes. CPD [online]. 2013, vol.13, n.1, pp.83-94. ISSN 1989-5879.

The goal of the present study was to validate the Spanish version of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) by Sullivan, Bishop and Pivik (1995) in a sample of 168 athletes for measuring the amount of catastrophizing due to pain. The translation of the scale was done and the psychometric properties were studied. The data were subjected to procedures of exploratory factorial analysis. The results indicated that the scale presents the same three-factor factorial structure (rumination, helplessness, and magnification) described in the original study, as well as adequate internal consistency (Cronbach´s alpha = 0.818). The three factors explain 54.40% of the variance. The values of internal consistency for the factors were between 0.61 and 0.73. In conclusion, the scale demonstrates adequate psychometric properties so its use is indicated in the evaluation of catastrophizing, both for applied practice as well as research, in Spanish athletes.

Keywords : catastrophizing; pain; athletes; validation.

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