Abstract
Objectives: Gelotophobia, a new clinical construct, is defined as the fear of being laughed at and ridiculed and is measured by the GELOPH<15> scale. The present study describes adaptation of the English version of GELOPH<15> to Arabic, using back-translation methodology, and its validation in the Lebanese context.
Method: The Arabic GELOPH<15> is administered to a group of Lebanese university students (n=198) to assess its factor structure and to a second group of 60 university students to assess its relationship to the Arabic Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ), the Arabic Center of Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale, and the Arabic Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWL).
Results: The findings support the internal consistency of the scale and its factor structure as a one-dimensional individual differences phenomenon. The findings also elucidated the relationship of the Arabic GELOPH<15>, and to life satisfaction as assessed by the Arabic Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWL).
Conclusion: Overall, the results suggest that the Arabic GELOPH<15> items are relevant in the Lebanese context, especially those that pertain to the intention of controlling oneself strongly and disengagement from social activities for self-protection from derision. As importantly, the findings are suggestive that approximately 7% of the scores exceed a cut-off point of ≥ 2.50, indicative of at least a slight expression of gelotophobic symptoms
Kazarian, S S