Construction and validation of the Factorial Arabic Neuroticism Scale.

The present aim was to construct and validate the Factorial Arabic Neuroticism Scale. Based on the scales developed by Eysenck, Cattell, and Guilford, the item pool consisted of 226 nonrepeated items. Five Ph.D. referees shortened the pool to 84 items. Then, the item-remainder correlation, the exclusion of the items with significant correlation with scores on Extraversion, and several cycles of factor analyses yielded 20 items representing the final version. The principal components analysis yielded two high-loaded factors of General Neuroticism and Sleep problems and tension. Reliability coefficients alpha ranged from .89 to .94 and between .81 and .91 for test-retest, indicating good internal consistency and temporal stability, respectively. Criterion-related validity ranged between .75 and .79 against scores on the Neuroticism subscale of the NEO-PI-R. Females obtained significantly higher mean scores than males for three of six comparisons (by age) among school and university students (N = 2,783). An English version is available. The scale may be recommended for use in research, especially on cross-cultural comparisons and for assessing the efficacy of cognitive behavior therapy.