Bulgarian version of TEMPS-A preliminary announcement

Background

The most pure definitions to describe the human individuality are temperament and character. Actuality of modern groupings into temperamental traits is legalized by conception of H. Akiskal, that linked temperamental structure and affective disorders.

Materials and methods

Aim

Approbation of Bulgarian version of TEMPS-A (Temperament Evaluation of the Memphis, Pisa, Paris, and San Diego Autoquestionnaire).

Material and Methods

In the current study were examined 523 healthy volunteers, male and female, between 18-45 years old. The study population was randomly selected and includes university students, high-school students, soldiers, employees and workers from different areas. A part of the population was examined again 45 days after first one regarding test-retest.

Instruments: TEMPS-A, EPQ, Screening IPDE, MPDO.

Results

The text of the questionnaire was translated by one of the investigators and back-translation was performed by independent professional translator. The full approval for the Bulgarian version of the questionnaire was obtained by the author.

The test-retest had applied for a part of the study population. The retest had performed again 45 days after first one regarding temporal reliability. The results demonstrate excellent correlations by test at all and by five dimensions separately.

Analysis of the principal components with a Varimax rotation confirmed that the 110 Bulgarian items of the TEMPS-A are distributed within the Akiskal's five factors.

Conclusions

TEMPS-A showed a good reliability and validity (internal consistency) in a Bulgarian non-clinical population. It gives us a new challenge to understand affective disorders nature and opportunities to measure it. Such research is in progress.