A Psychometric Examination of the Dimensional Obsessive Compulsive Scale in a Treatment-Seeking Youth Sample

Abstract

The Dimensional Obsessive Compulsive Scale (DOCS) was developed to address several limitations of existing self-report measures of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms, and has been found to be a psychometrically sound method of assessing OCD symptoms in adults. However, to date, the psychometric performance of the DOCS has not been studied in a youth sample. The present study addressed this gap in the literature by examining the psychometric properties of the DOCS in a large sample (n=182) of treatment-seeking youth diagnosed with OCD. Results indicated that the DOCS showed good convergent validity with a youth OCD assessment scale, as well as similar sensitivity to the effects of treatment-related change in symptom severity. The DOCS also maintained its original four-factor structure in the youth sample, similar to findings in adults, supporting the consistency of the four subscales included. Overall, the DOCS appears to represent a promising method for assessing OCD symptom severity and response to treatment of OCD in youth.