What Are You Ruminating About? The Development and Validation of a Content-Dependent Measure of Rumination

Purpose

Existing measures of rumination assess ruminative thought without reference to the content of ruminations. The present studies describe the construction and validation of the Rumination Domains Questionnaire, a new measure of rumination which considers the domain specificity of ruminative thought.

Methods

A theoretical definition of rumination and domains of life were formulated through a literature review. Items were based on these domains, clinical/counselling case studies, and expert feedback. In Study 1, 106 preliminary items were reduced to 60 items through empirical analyses. In Study 2, the content and structural validity were assessed.

Results

Items were retained based on empirical criteria and the final scale demonstrated acceptable fit for both a 10-factor model and a hierarchical model. Content validity and criterion validity were supported, and both 10-factor and hierarchical models demonstrated acceptable fit.

Conclusions

Overall, we present strong evidence supporting the validity of the RDQ.