Beyond sound irritation: cross-cultural evidence on the robustness of the five aspects of misophonic experience measured by the S-Five in a Polish sample

Abstract

Misophonia is commonly associated with negative emotional or physiological responses to specific sounds. However, the consensus definition emphasizes that misophonia entails much more than that. Even in cases of subclinical misophonia, where individuals do not meet the disorder criteria, the experience can still be burdensome, despite not currently causing significant distress or impairment. The S-Five is a psychometric tool for comprehensive assessment of five aspects of misophonic experience: internalizing, externalizing, impact, threat, and outburst, and includes S-Five-T section to evaluate feelings evoked by triggering sounds and their intensity. We examined whether the five-factor structure developed in the UK could be replicated in a Polish sample, including individuals with and without self-identified misophonia. The Polish version of the S-Five was translated and tested on 288 Polish-speaking individuals. Comprehensive psychometric evaluation, including factor structure, measurement invariance, test–retest reliability, internal consistency, and concurrent validity evaluations, was conducted on the translated scale. Exploratory factor analysis suggested similar structure to the original English study, while bootstrap exploratory graph analysis showed the factor structure to be reproducible in other samples. The scale was found to be bias free with respect to gender, internally consistent and stable in time, and evidence of validity was provided using MisoQuest and Misophonia Questionnaire. These results offer support for the cross-cultural stability of the five factors and provide preliminary evidence for the suitability of the Polish version for clinical and research purposes. The study also investigated five facets of misophonia, triggering sounds, emotional responses, and their associations with symptoms of psychopathology across various cultures. It underscores the central role of anger, distress, and panic, while also highlighting the mixed role of irritation and disgust in misophonia across different cultural contexts. Mouth sounds evoked the most pronounced reactions compared to other repetitive sounds, although there were discernible cultural differences in the nature and intensity of reactions to various trigger sounds. These findings hold significant implications for future research and underscore the importance of considering cultural nuances in both research and the clinical management of misophonia.