Cross-Cultural Validity of the Ruminative Responses Scale in Argentina and the United States

Arana, Fernán G.
Rice, Kenneth G.

¹Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
²Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

Kenneth G. Rice, Center for the Study of Stress, Trauma, and Resilience, Department of Counseling and Psychological Services, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 3980, Atlanta, GA 30302-3980, USA. Email: [email protected]

Assessment 27(2):p 309-320, March 2020. | DOI: 10.1177/1073191117729204

Although frequently used in the United States, the Ruminative Response Scale (RRS) has not been extensively studied in cross-cultural samples. The present study evaluated the factor structure of Treynor et al.’s 10-item version of the RRS in samples from Argentina (N = 308) and the United States (N = 371). In addition to testing measurement invariance between the countries, we evaluated whether the maladaptive implications of rumination were weaker for the Argentinians than for the U.S. group. Self-critical perfectionism was the criterion in those tests. Partial scalar invariance supported an 8-item version of the RRS. There were no differences in factor means or factor correlations in RRS dimensions between countries. Brooding and Reflection were positively correlated with self-critical perfectionism in both countries, with no significant differences in the sizes of these relations between the two samples. Results are discussed in terms of psychometric and cross-cultural implications for rumination.