Attentional Control Scale-Turkish Version: Psychometric Qualities, Factor Structure and Its Comparison with Behavioral Measures of Executive Attention

Abstract

Attentional control refers to the capacity to voluntarily control attentional resources in a flexible manner. Attentional control was reported to play a fundamental role in self-regulation, emotion regulation, delay of gratification, and psychological distress. The Attentional Control Scale (ACS) was developed to measure perceived attentional control based on shifting and focusing dimensions. The present studies aimed to adapt the Turkish version of ACS and asses its psychometric characteristics. Study 1 aimed to explore the psychometric qualities of the Turkish version with a group of Turkish individuals (N = 428, 306 women) between the ages of 18 and 68 and supported the two-factor model of ACS consisting of 17 items in total. The results supported that shifting, focusing, and total ACS showed adequate internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent validity evidence based on its significant correlations with measures of anxiety, depression, and repetitive negative thinking, signifying its proper psychometric characteristics. In Study 2 (N = 97, 65 women), the association of ACS with behavioral attentional control measures was examined, and non-significant associations between self-report and behavioral measures of attentional control were denoted. These findings signified that rather than indicating the individual's actual attentional control capacity, ACS assessed how the individual perceives their own attention control capacities. Taken together, the results suggest that the Turkish form of ACS is a valid and reliable scale that can be used to assess perceived attentional control capacity based on shifting and focusing domains, particularly in the research setting.