Validity and Reliability of the Persian Version of the Fear of Happiness Scale

Background: Certain scales have been designed to measure fear of happiness as a phenomenon that is observed in different cultures. Objectives: The present study was conducted to investigate the psychometric properties of the fear of happiness scale in an Iranian sample, and to study this phenomenon in the Iranian culture. Methods: A total of 210 students of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran, including 83 males and 127 females, completed the fear of happiness scale (FHS), the mindful attention awareness scale (MAAS), the fear of negative emotions scale (FNES), and the positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS). The data obtained were analyzed in SPSS and LISREL using confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses, the Pearson correlation and Cronbach’s alpha. Results: The single-factor structure of the main scale was not confirmed in the sample. Confirmatory factor analysis suggested the fitting of the two factors, and the exploratory factor analysis obtained two factors, namely “fear of experiencing happiness” and“fear of consequences of happiness”, which explained 52.41% of the variance. The Cronbach’s alpha calculated for fear of experiencing happiness was 0.70 and for fear of consequences of happiness was 0.73. Conclusions: The results of the present research showed that Iranian citizens tend to reduce or suppress their feeling of happiness owing to their cultural beliefs. Moreover, the psychometric properties of the fear of happiness scale were found to be appropriate in Iranian students.