Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire in High School Students

Introduction: Experiential avoidance is a phenomenon that refers to a verbal regulation based on deliberate attempt to avoid or escape from personal experience, such as bodily sensations, emotions, thoughts, memories, behavioral predispositions that disturb perception. The aim of the present study was to consider the confirmatory factor analysis of experiential avoidance questionnaire in high school students in Iran.Methods: The study method was a descriptive and the statistical population included all second-high school students in Damavand city in Iran in 2016. Four hundred and thirty-four participants were randomly selected via multi-stage sampling method and completed 3 questionnaires: experiential avoidance, test anxiety, positive and negative perfectionism.Results: Results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that fit indicators such as normed Chi-square (X2/df = 2.542), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA = 0.060), comparative fit index (CFI = 0.923), goodness of fit index (GFI = 0.929) and adjusted fit index (AGFI = 0.897) support the six-factor structure of the experiential avoidance questionnaire. The six factors are behavioral avoidance; incompatibility distress; procrastination; distraction / suppression; denial / repression; and distress tolerance. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for these factors were obtained 0.75, 0.75, 0.54, 0.88, 0.66 and 0.77, respectively. The relationship between test anxiety and negative perfectionism was positive and significant, which is indicative of convergent validity; and the relationship between positive perfectionism with some of components of experiential avoidance were negative and significant, which is indicative of divergent validity.Conclusion: The results showed that this questionnaire have reliability and validity in Iranian students. Thus, psychologists and researchers have been recommended to use this questionnaire for diagnostic assessments, intervening programs, and identification of experiential avoidance dimensions.