Horne Kristina, Chen Tao, Irish Muireann
Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Br J Clin Psychol. 2025 Jun;64(2):315-329. doi: 10.1111/bjc.12505. Epub 2024 Sep 22.
Inflexibility of thought and behaviour is a transdiagnostic feature of many neuropsychiatric disorders and presents several empirical measurement challenges. Here, we developed and validated the Flexibility in Daily Life scale (FIDL); a novel, self-report questionnaire, which captures expressions of cognitive and behavioural flexibility in daily life and is sensitive to natural shifts in these processes across the adult lifespan.
The FIDL was developed using a deductive scale development approach, which aimed to capture common themes within the flexibility literature and across diagnoses (e.g. insistence on sameness, preference for routines). Following multidisciplinary consensus, an initial 37-item questionnaire was submitted for validation in an online sample of 295 healthy adult participants (19-78 years).
Exploratory factor analysis produced a revised 21-item version comprising five factors, labelled: Repetition, Switching, Predictability/Control, Routine, and Thoughts/Beliefs. Internal consistency reliability was good-to-strong for the total FIDL score and moderate-to-strong for individual subscales. Convergent validity was established between the FIDL and an existing measure of cognitive flexibility. Critically, the FIDL total score evinced a U-shaped relationship with age, whereby flexibility was lower at the younger and older tails of the lifespan and greater in middle age. The same U-shaped trajectory emerged for the Repetition, Routine, and Thoughts/Beliefs factors.
Overall, the FIDL is a valid and reliable multidimensional measure of flexibility, which upholds a clearly defined factor structure and good psychometric properties. It promises to be a valuable clinical and research tool to assess the natural fluctuations in flexibility across the lifespan and departures thereof.
思维和行为的僵化是许多神经精神疾病的一种跨诊断特征，并且带来了若干实证测量方面的挑战。在此，我们开发并验证了日常生活灵活性量表（FIDL）；这是一种新颖的自我报告问卷，它能够捕捉日常生活中认知和行为灵活性的表现，并且对这些过程在成年期的自然变化敏感。
FIDL采用演绎量表开发方法进行开发，旨在捕捉灵活性文献以及不同诊断中的共同主题（例如坚持相同、偏好常规）。经过多学科共识后，一份初始的37个条目的问卷在295名健康成年参与者（19 - 78岁）的在线样本中进行验证。
探索性因素分析产生了一个修订后的21个条目的版本，包含五个因素，分别标记为：重复、转换、可预测性/控制、常规以及思维/信念。FIDL总分的内部一致性信度良好到较强，各个子量表的内部一致性信度中等至较强。FIDL与现有的认知灵活性测量工具之间建立了收敛效度。关键的是，FIDL总分与年龄呈现出U形关系，即灵活性在成年期的两端较低，在中年时较高。重复、常规和思维/信念因素也出现了相同的U形轨迹。
总体而言，FIDL是一种有效且可靠的灵活性多维测量工具，它具有明确界定的因素结构和良好的心理测量特性。它有望成为评估一生中灵活性的自然波动及其偏离情况的有价值的临床和研究工具。
