Psychometric properties of the arabic version of the schizotypal personality questionnaire in Tunisian university students.

Background: The schizotypal personality disorder is considered as a marker of schizophrenia proneness. The schizotypal personality questionnaire (SPQ) is an instrument to help to the diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder extensively studied in the literature. aim: To assess psychometric properties (reliability and factor structure) of the Arabic version of the SPQ in a sample of Tunisian university students. method: The sample included 490 students (145 males and 345 females; mean age: 20.4 ± 1.4 years), from the faculty of medicine and the health sciences school of Monastir. Thirty-three students participated in the second assessment of the SPQ three months later. results: Cronbach's (α) internal consistency reliability coefficients were 0.92 for the total SPQ and from 0.62 to 0.75 for the SPQ subscales. The test-retest reliability was good with the intraclass correlation coefficients equal to 0.83 for the total SPQ and from 0.67 to 0.87 for the SPQ subscales (P<0.0001). Factor analysis indicated that the three-factor model (positive or cognitive-perceptual, negative or interpersonal, and disorganized) and the four-factor model (cognitive-perceptual, paranoid, interpersonal, and disorganized) have provided a good fit to the data, accounting for 70.7% and 77.3% of the total variance of the scale, respectively.

Conclusion: The results showed that the Arabic version of the SPQ had adequate psychometric properties and confirmed the multidimensional structure of the schizotypal personality in nonclinical populations.