Psychometric Properties of the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale-II Self-Report

Abstract

The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) is one of the most commonly used instruments for assessing and quantifying the presence and severity of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. Both the interview and self-report (SR) versions of the original Y-BOCS have demonstrated good psychometrics. However, areas for revision were noted regarding the measure's severity ceiling and a "resistance to obsessions" item that did not perform adequately in psychometric testing and was not consistent with theoretical models of OCD. The Y-BOCS-II was thereby created to address these concerns. While the interview has demonstrated strong psychometrics, psychometric evaluation of the self-report version is currently nonexistent. In a sample of 63 adult patients seeking outpatient treatment for OCD (66.7% female, 77.8% white, and 17.5% Hispanic or Latine), we examined the psychometric properties of the Y-BOCS-II-SR, including the level of agreement with the Y-BOCS-II items, subscales, and severity qualifiers, as well as its internal consistency, and its convergent validity with measures of OCD, functional impairment, and quality of life. As expected, the Y-BOCS-II-SR demonstrated strong psychometric properties and expected overlap with responses obtained using the Y-BOCS-II. The findings provide strong initial support for the psychometric properties of the Y-BOCS-II-SR and suggest that it is an efficient and effective option to measure OCD severity.