Page 74 - JCBP-3-1

Journal of Clinical and

Basic Psychosomatics

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Development and validation of a neuroticism

scale: Assessment of reliability and validity

Qingfei Liu , Linlin You 2† , Yonggui Yuan 2 , and Wenhao Jiang *
1†
2
1 Department of Psychology, Medical Humanities, School of Southeast University, Nanjing,
Jiangsu, China
2 Department of Psychosomatics and Psychiatry, ZhongDa Hospital, School of Medicine,
Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

Abstract
Neuroticism, a personality trait linked to emotional instability and negative emotions,
is associated with increased anxiety, depression, and poor mental health outcomes,
particularly in individuals with psychiatric disorders. However, existing neuroticism
scales often have too many items, are not tailored for psychiatric populations, and lack
cultural adaptation for Chinese contexts. We aimed to develop a brief neuroticism scale
with adequate reliability and validity for the Chinese population, including individuals
with psychiatric disorders. The 14-item scale was developed based on the five-factor
† These authors contributed equally model and Eysenck’s personality theory. The scale, in the form of a questionnaire,
to this work. was distributed to college students from Southeast University and patients from the
*Corresponding author: Affiliated Zhongda Hospital of Southeast University. A total of 554 participants were
Wenhao Jiang recruited, and demographic information, the neurotic subscale of the Neuroticism
(wjiang@seu.edu.cn) Extraversion Openness Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), Patient Health Questionnaire
Citation: Liu Q, You L, (PHQ-9), and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD-7) were collected along with the
Yuan Y, Jiang W. Development neuroticism scale. Correlation analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, exploratory factor analysis
and validation of a neuroticism
scale: Assessment of reliability and (EFA), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted to test and revise the scale.
validity. J Clin Basic Psychosom. EFA indicated that the neuroticism scale consisted of four factors: Low self-esteem,
2025;3(1):68-75. excessive emotional sensitivity, unstable mood, and excessive worry. The Cronbach’s
doi: 10.36922/jcbp.3791
alpha was 0.926. CFA suggested a good fit of the scale structure (χ /df =2.506, root
2
Received: May 30, 2024 mean square error of approximation =0.039, Tucker–Lewis index =0.947, comparative
1st revised: July 18, 2024 fit index =0.959, and standardized root mean square residual =0.032). The total scores
of the neuroticism scale were positively related to those of PHQ-9, GAD-7, and NEO-
2nd revised: August 6, 2024
FFI. The results indicate that the neuroticism scale exhibited a stable four-dimensional
Accepted: August 12, 2024 structure with good reliability and validity in the Chinese population. It is useful and
Published Online: November 22, time-saving for assessing neuroticism in individuals with psychiatric disorders.
2024
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). Keywords: Neuroticism; Factor analysis; Reliability; Validity
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, 1. Introduction
provided the original work is
properly cited. Neuroticism, a personality trait, reflects individuals’ emotional stability and is closely related
1
Publisher’s Note: AccScience to negative emotions. Historically, the concept of neuroticism originated from Freud’s
Publishing remains neutral with theory, which supported that repression leads to the subconscious mind causing neurosis.
2
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional Subsequently, Karen Horney argued that neuroticism arises from fundamental anxiety in
3
affiliations. individuals. Eysenck was one of the first to operationalize the definition of “neuroticism,”
Volume 3 Issue 1 (2025) 68 doi: 10.36922/jcbp.3791