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Abstract
The Ruminative Response Scale (RRS) is the most used measure of rumination in response to depressive mood. The RRS consists of 22 items that are responded on a 4-point Likert-type scale. A 10-item version of the RRS (RRS-SF) has been developed by removing the items that overlap with items of depression measures. The RRS-SF contains two subscales (Brooding and Reflection) that showed acceptable psychometric properties in the original and Spanish version. However, the psychometric properties and factor structure of the RRS-SF have not been tested in Colombia. After warranting validity content of the Spanish version of the RRS-SF, it was administered to a total of 604 participants including a nonclinical and clinical sample. The internal consistency of both subscales was acceptable and similar to the original version. The two-factor model showed a good fit to the data and measurement invariance across samples. The clinical sample's mean scores on the RRS-SF subscales were significantly higher than scores of the nonclinical sample. Brooding and Reflection scores were significantly related to measures of pathological worry, emotional symptoms, psychological distress, experiential avoidance, and cognitive fusion. The Spanish version of the RRS-SF showed good psychometric properties in Colombia.
Key words: ruminative responses scale, rumination, repetitive negative thinking, depression.
Response Style Theory (RST; Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991) has analyzed how people tend to respond differently to their mood by engaging in some coping strategies such as distracting themselves, engaging in problem-solving, ruminating, etc. According to research within RST, some ways of responding to one's mood are adaptive and others are counterproductive. One of the most investigated response styles is rumination, which is defined as a way of coping with sadness and depression characterized by repetitive and passive thinking concerning their causes, consequences, and meaning. Specifically, rumination consists of repeatedly asking oneself and answering questions such as "Why am I feeling so sad? What's wrong with me? Why can't I overcome this?"
The empirical evidence within RST has shown that rumination is a particularly pernicious way of responding to feelings of sadness and depression because ruminators usually get trapped in cycles of ruminative thinking that do not lead to engaging in effective problem-solving actions (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2004). Studies have found that the tendency to engage in rumination in response to distress is a...