[Adaptation and Validation of the Hungarian Version of the Fight-Flight-Freeze Questionnaire (FFFQ-HU)].

Abstract

Introduction: Fear is the primary emotional response to threats, driving individuals to cope with threats by triggering a stress response. This response can manifest in three distinct ways: defensive attack (fight), escape (flight), or immobility (freeze). Understanding these reaction types is crucial in personality psychology, neuroscience, and psychopathology. In this context, the adaptation of a Hungarian-language questionnaire to assess these responses is both timely and necessary.

Methodology: The aim of the present study is to adapt and validate the Fight-Flight-Freeze Questionnaire (FFFQ-HU) in Hungarian. The questionnaire development consisted of three phases: (1) a qualitative preliminary study to select terms describing the constructs, (2) a quantitative (N = 420) study to explore the preliminary factor structure and select the final items, and (3) a quantitative (N = 851) study to explore and confirm the final factor structure and validate it. The ZKA-PQ-R, ANPS, BIS-BAS, and TCI55 questionnaires were used as validation scales.

Results: Exploring the preliminary factor structure revealed clearly identifiable factors related to both the fight and freeze dimensions. In addition, we obtained one factor describing the emotional component of the fear response and one factor describing the avoidance behaviour, of which we retained the one containing the behavioural component for construct validity. The three-factor structure of the final questionnaire was confirmed, with acceptable or excellent fit indices for the exploratory analysis (RMSEA= 0.05; SRMR= 0.02; CFI= 0.97; TLI= 0.96), and also for the confirmatory one (RMSEA= 0.08; SRMR= 0.06; CFI= 0.97; TLI= 0.96, GFI= 0.99). The fight dimension did not correlate with the other factors, while flight and freeze showed a high positive correlation with each other, which differs from the results of the original questionnaire but can be explained by other research findings. The internal reliability indices of the factors were good (ω= 0.86-0.94; α= 0.86-0.94), and the correlation with the validation scales also supported the validity of the questionnaire.

Conclusion: The results suggest that the Hungarian version of the Fight-Flight-Freeze Questionnaire (FFFQ-HU) is an appropriate measure for assessing types of stress reactions, thus enabling a wider range of research on fear reactions in Hungarian in the future.