The how I think questionnaire: assessing its psychometric properties in Bangladeshi culture

Abstract

There is growing importance of the How I Think (HIT) questionnaire in clinical practice and cognitive research. Since the development of the HIT (Barriga and Gibbs, Aggress. Behav., 1996; 22: 333-343), a number of validation studies have been done in various cultures. The aim of the present study was to translate the instrument into Bangla and validate in Bangladeshi culture. A total of 200 adolescents participated in the study. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the data from 191 participants (88 girls and 103 boys; who provided complete responses) identified a four-factor structure of the HIT with 27 items. The four factors namely 'Catastrophizing and mislabeling', 'Emotional reasoning', 'Self-centeredness and blaming' and 'Overgeneralization' together explained 39.611% of the total variance. In line with the original scale we also defined four types of antisocial behavior. The HIT and its factors showed acceptable to good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .83 for the HIT, and .40-.77 for its factors), and strong construct validity as revealed by the evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. Thus the Bangla version HIT appears to be valid and reliable, and therefore may be used in further research on cognitive distortions and antisocial behaviors in Bangladesh.