Validation of the Hebrew Version of the Dissociative Experiences Scale (H-DES) in Israel

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Ob jec tives :The pur pose of this re search was to ex plore the va lid ity of the con cept of dis so ci a tion as mea sured by a He brew version of the Dissociative Ex pe ri ences Scale (H-DES) in Is rael.De sign : The first study ex am ined the re li abil ity and va lid ity of the H-DES by as sess ing 340 con sec u tive ad mis sions to an Is raeli out pa tient clinic, and 290 non-clin i cal sub jects. The sec ond study ex plored the construct va lid ity of the con cept of dis so ci a tion by study ing re la tion ships be tween re ported past traumatization and cur rent lev els of dis so ci a tion among a dif fer ent co hort of 70 women Is raeli out pa tients.Re sults: The H-DES has good test-re test and split-half re li abil ity in clin i cal and non-clin i cal sub jects, and is in ter nally con sis tent. Its con vergent va lid ity with the MMPI 2 Philips Dis so ci a tion Scale is good, and it has good cri te rion-re lated va lid ity with DSM-IV dissociative dis or der di ag no ses. The con cept of dis so ci a tion as mea sured in Is rael by the H-DES has high re li abil ity and va lid ity. Con clu sions:The re li able iden ti fi ca tion of dis sociative ex pe ri ences in Is rael as well as in sev eral cul tures out side North Amer ica sup ports dis soci a tion as a valid psy cho log i cal con struct with wide spread cross-cul tural ap pli ca bil ity. This study con tra dicts claims that dis so ci a tion is merely a pass ing North Amer i can pro fes sional fash ion. Ad dress cor re spon dence to: Eli Somer, PhD, School of So cial Work, Uni ver sity of Haifa, Mt. Car mel, Haifa 31905, Is rael (E-mail: somer@re search.haifa.ac.il).

Development of the Hebrew-Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (H-MID): A Valid and Reliable Measure of Pathological Dissociation

“…Divergent validity was estimated by comparing the scores of the H-DES and the Masculinity-Femininity (Mf) scale of the MMPI-2. There was no significant correlation between these two scales (r = Ϫ.03) (Somer et al, 2001).…”

“…The SCID-D-R has been shown to have excellent reliability and discriminant validity (Steinberg et al, 1990(Steinberg et al, , 1993. The instrument had been previously translated by the first author and his colleagues (Somer et al, 2001). In the present study the Hebrew version of the SCID-D-R was administered by the first author to 34 consenting patients or consultees referred to him for assessment or treatment.…”

“…Dissociation re-search in Israel has also contributed to the development and validation of the first dissociation assessment tool in Israel-the Hebrew DES (H-DES). The H-DES has demonstrated excellent reliability and validity (Somer, Dolgin, & Saadon, 2001). …”

“…The DES has been shown to be a valid and reliable screening instrument (Frischholtz et al, 1990;Waller, 1996); it is the most used measure of dissociation in the published literature. The Hebrew translation of the DES (H-DES) has high reliability and validity (Somer et al, 2001). The test-retest reliability coefficient was .87.…”

Posttraumatic Dissociation as a Mediator of the Effects of Trauma on Distressful Introspectiveness

“…The instrument has been shown to be a valid and reliable screening instrument (Frischholtz et al, 1990;Waller, 1995). The Hebrew translation of the DES (H-DES) has been shown to have high reliability and validity (Somer, Dolgin, & Saadon, 2001). The instruments' total score test-retest reliability coefficient was .87 (p< 0.0001, N=141).…”