Dissociative experiences in the general population in the Netherlands and Belgium: a study with the Dissociative Questionaire (DIS-Q)

p. 180-184This article describes the results of the first European study on the prevalence of dissociative experiences in the general population of Belgium (Flanders) and the Netherlands. Dissociative experiences were assessed with a new self-reporting dissociation questionnaire (DIS-Q). The DIS-Q has been administered to a representative sample of the Dutch and Flemish population (N=374). The results show that dissociative experiences are quite common in the general population, and that their frequency is declining with age. About 3 percent of the population (the majority men) reports serious dissociative phenomena, and 1 percent shows scores as high as patients with multiple personality disorder. These findings suggest that dissociative disorders are seriously under-diagnosed by mental health professionals

Structural and metric validity of the Dutch translation of psychopathy checklist: youth version

In the present study, the structural validity of the dutch version of the psychopathy checklist: youth version (in dutch: psychopathie checklist: jeugd versie; pcl:yv; de ruiter, kuin, de vries, & das, 2002) was examined in adolescent offenders by means of confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) and item response theory (irt). The pcl:yv item ratings for 269 adolescent males, either admitted to a dutch juvenile treatment institution or psychologically evaluated upon request of the court, were used to test the fit of different factor models presumed to represent the structure of psychopathy as measured by the pcl-r in adults. The study provides support for a good absolute and relative fit for the 3-factor model, but not for the 4-factor model. Results from irt analyses demonstrate the highest discriminative value for the affective items in the dutch adolescent sample. The present findings demonstrate poor discriminative power and age influence on item functioning for most antisocial items of the fourth factor