Psychometric properties of the Dutch revised sense of coherence scale in a firefighter sample

BACKGROUND: Sense of coherence (SOC) has been associated with resilience to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and seems to be a promising factor in primary prevention of PTSD in high risk populations. OBJECTIVE: The present study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Dutch revised Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-R) in a sample of N = 527 firefighters. METHOD: To investigate the internal structure of this 13-item scale, a Mokken scale analysis and an exploratory factor analysis were conducted (i.e. parallel analysis based on MRFA). RESULTS: The combined results of these analyses suggested that a one-factor solution with 10 out of 13 items was most compelling for our firefighter sample. Reliability estimates for the 10-item version increased compared to the 13-item version (13-item: α = .82, λ(2) = .83; 10-item: α = λ(2) = .85). As expected, the Dutch version showed positive associations with resilience (convergent validity), and low correlations with neuroticism and extraversion (discriminant validity). CONCLUSIONS: The one-factor solution of the Dutch SOC-R with 10 items (excluding item 2, item 3, and item 6) is most convincing. The use of this scale might be specifically interesting regarding its potential to primary prevention of trauma-related psychopathology in high-risk samples.