Validity and Reliability of the Affective Lability Scale-18 (ALS-18) Turkish Form in the Non-Clinical Group.

Objective: Affective lability, which is an important aspect of mood dysregulation, is seen in many psychiatric conditions. The aim of this study is to examine the psychometric properties of the Affective Lability Scale-18 in the Turkish sample of the non-clinical group.

Method: A total of 615 individuals (312 females and 303 males) who did not have a past or current psychiatric disorder were included in the study. The participants were administered sociodemographic data form, Affective Lability Scale-18, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, and Beck Depression Inventory. The participants were divided into 4 groups; a pilot group, EFA (exploratory factor analysis) group, CFA (confirmatory factor analysis) group and test-retest group.

Results: The factor analysis conducted for the construct validity of the scale, revealed similar results to that of the original scale. The Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficient was 0.92 for the EFA group and 0.92 for the CFA group. The test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.82. Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI) were used tp measure validity. The correlation between the total scores of participants on the ALS-18 and their scores on the DERS and BDI was determined to be positive and moderate (r=0.38, r=41).

Conclusion: The Affective Lability Scale-18 in the Turkish sample, three sub-dimensions, anxiety/depression, depression/elevation, anger and the general factor all have sufficient internal consistency and it has been demonstrated that the scale can be applied in our country to evaluate the situations in which affect variability is evaluated.