Psychometric Validation of a Turkish Version of the Inventory of Common Problems: a Tool for Turkish College Counselors

Transition from high school to college can be very challenging for Turkish students, and poor adjustment can affect students’ physical and mental health and well-being. It is important for college counseling center staff in Turkey to have access to screening instruments to identify students with high risk for college life adjustment difficulties. The purpose of this study was to validate a Turkish version of the Inventory of Common Problems (ICP; Hoffman and Weiss 1986) for Turkish college students. Two hundreds and thirty-five Turkish university students participated in this study. Factorial structure of the ICP was evaluated using exploratory factor analysis, resulting in a four-factor structure with the internal consistency reliability coefficients for all factors being excellent to average: (a) emotional problems (Cronbach’s α =.90), (b) academic problems (α =.80), (c) substance use problems (α =.77), and (d) physical health problems (α =.73). The emotional problems factor, academic problems factor, and physical health problems factor were significantly associated with perceived stress, depression, and anxiety in the expected direction, as measured by the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10; Cohen and Williamson 1988), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9; Kroenke et al. 2001) and General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) Scale (Spitzer et al. 2006). This study demonstrated that the Turkish version of the ICP could be regarded as a reliable, valid and multidimensional measure, valuable to counseling and health services professionals in Turkey as well as for Turkish international students studying aboard.