Psychometric Properties of the Turkish Version of the Dark Future Scale.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Dark Future Scale that measures future anxiety.

Methods: The sample consisted of 478 university students aged 18-25 and used convenience sampling. They completed an online survey about sociodemographics, tobacco use, and life satisfaction, Dark Future Scale and Trait Anxiety Inventory-2 Trait Scale. Confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach alpha values were used to test scale's structural validity and reliability. For convergent validity, we correlated the Turkish version of the Dark Future Scale with trait anxiety and examined the mean differences in smoking status and its association with life satisfaction.

Results: Majority of the participants were female (73.6%), with a mean age of 21.5 (SD = 1.67). Majority (53.6%) were regular tobacco users. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis revealed a 1-factor solution to be most optimal (χ ² = 17.091, df = 4, P = .002, χ²/df = 4.3, and root-mean-square error = 0.083, comparative fit index = 0.988, general fit index = 0.986, The Adjusted Goodness of Fit (AGFI) = 0.986, normalized fit index = 0.985). The alpha value for the scale reliability was 0.86. Turkish version of the Dark Future Scale was also significantly and positively correlated with trait anxiety (r(478) = .67, P <.01). Exploration of the association between smoking status and Turkish version of the Dark Future Scale showed that the mean score was significantly higher among smokers (M = 19.1, SD = 6.65) than nonsmokers (M = 17.7, SD = 7.69). Lastly, higher future anxiety was associated with lower life satisfaction (r(478) = -0.42, P < .01).

Conclusion: Turkish version of the Dark Future Scale is a reliable and valid scale to measure future anxiety. A brief and easy to apply, reliable, and valid future anxiety measure may be useful for many researchers in psychology and psychiatry.