title: The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale: A Reliability Generalization Meta-Analysis.
abstract: The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) is the most frequently applied test to assess obsessive compulsive symptoms. We conducted a reliability generalization meta-analysis on the Y-BOCS to estimate the average reliability, examine the variability among the reliability estimates, search for moderators, and propose a predictive model that researchers and clinicians can use to estimate the expected reliability of the Y-BOCS. We included studies where the Y-BOCS was applied to a sample of adults and reliability estimate was reported. Out of the 11,490 references located, 144 studies met the selection criteria. For the total scale, the mean reliability was 0.866 for coefficients alpha, 0.848 for test-retest correlations, and 0.922 for intraclass correlations. The moderator analyses led to a predictive model where the standard deviation of the total test and the target population (clinical vs. nonclinical) explained 38.6% of the total variability among coefficients alpha. Finally, clinical implications of the results are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: José Antonio
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: López-Pina
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain jsmeca@um.es.
authors.forename: Julio
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Meca
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: José Antonio
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: López-López
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Fulgencio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marín-Martínez
authors.affiliation: Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Elche, Spain.
authors.forename: Rosa Maria
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Núñez-Núñez
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Ana I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Rosa-Alcázar
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Antonia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gómez-Conesa
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Josefa
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ferrer-Requena
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: Y-BOCS; internal consistency; intraclass correlation; meta-analysis; reliability generalization; test–retest reliability