Item response theory analysis of the Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep-16 (DBAS-16) scale in a university student sample

Louise I R Castillo, Thomas Hadjistavropoulos, L Odell Tan and Ying C MacNab

PLOS ONE, 2023, vol. 18, issue 2, 1-15

Abstract: Unhelpful beliefs about sleep have been shown to exacerbate distress associated with sleep-related difficulties. University students are particularly vulnerable to experiencing sleep-related problems. The Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep-16 (DBAS-16) scale is a widely used instrument that assesses for sleep-disruptive cognitions. Although psychometric support for the DBAS-16 is available, Item Response Theory (IRT) analysis is needed to examine its properties at the item level. Psychometric investigation in non-clinical samples can help identify people who may be at risk for developing sleep problems. We examined the DBAS-16 using IRT on a sample of 759 university students. Our results identified items and subscales that adequately/inadequately differentiated between students who held unhelpful beliefs about sleep and those who did not. The DBAS-16 is a valuable instrument to assess unhelpful beliefs about sleep. We outline recommendations to improve the discriminatory ability of the instrument. Future investigations should establish cross-validation with a clinical sample.

Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0281364

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281364

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