Indecisiveness is a prevalent and impairing symptom among individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the use of different self-report questionnaires and factor analysis methods in past research has been a barrier to understanding the nature of indecisiveness in depression. Addressing these barriers could help to elucidate the dimensionality and validity of indecisiveness questionnaires, which in turn would clarify the relation of indecisiveness to depression. In our study of an online sample of adults (N = 602), we administered two commonly used indecisiveness questionnaires, a depressive symptom questionnaire, and a behavioral task assessing indecision. Through confirmatory factor analysis, we found that the combined indecisiveness questionnaires were best characterized by a two-factor model, with one factor corresponding to straightforwardly worded items and the other corresponding to reverse-scored items. Based on post hoc analyses involving tests of discriminant validity, we think that these two factors represent indecisiveness and decision-making confidence, respectively. Indecisiveness, but not decision-making confidence, was strongly associated with depressive symptoms. Indecisiveness was also strongly associated with behavioral indecision, a finding that helps to validate indecisiveness as a construct. We posit that the assessment of indecisiveness could be enhanced by excluding the reverse-scored items because they appear to represent decision-making confidence, a distinct construct from indecisiveness. Excluding the reverse-scored items revealed a robust link between indecisiveness and depressive symptoms, highlighting the importance of targeting this symptom in depression research.

中文翻译：

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了解优柔寡断：两份自我报告问卷的维度以及与抑郁和优柔寡断的关联。

优柔寡断是重度抑郁症 (MDD) 患者普遍存在的一种损害性症状。然而，在过去的研究中使用不同的自我报告问卷和因素分析方法一直是理解抑郁症优柔寡断本质的障碍。解决这些障碍有助于阐明优柔寡断问卷的维度和有效性，进而阐明优柔寡断与抑郁症的关系。在我们对成人在线样本的研究中（N= 602），我们进行了两个常用的优柔寡断问卷、抑郁症状问卷和评估优柔寡断的行为任务。通过验证性因素分析，我们发现综合优柔寡断问卷的最佳特征在于双因素模型，一个因素对应于直截了当的项目，另一个对应于反向评分的项目。基于涉及区分效度检验的事后分析，我们认为这两个因素分别代表优柔寡断和决策信心。优柔寡断，但不是决策信心，与抑郁症状密切相关。优柔寡断也与行为优柔寡断密切相关，这一发现有助于验证优柔寡断是一种结构。我们假设通过排除反向评分项目可以增强对优柔寡断的评估，因为它们似乎代表了决策信心，这是与优柔寡断不同的结构。排除反向评分项目揭示了优柔寡断和抑郁症状之间的密切联系，突出了在抑郁症研究中针对这种症状的重要性。