Measuring Dissociative Symptoms and Experiences in an Australian College Sample Using a Short Version of the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation

ABSTRACT

This paper investigated a 60-item version of the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (MID) with the potential to capture the full range of dissociative symptoms that characterize each of the dissociative disorders (DD). The 28-item Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) was designed to capture a wide range of dissociative phenomena, but college population studies indicate it may not be adept at identifying the full range of dissociative symptoms and disorders. The 218-item MID has the advantage of capturing the full range of dissociative symptoms and has diagnostic capabilities for all DSM-5 DD, but the disadvantage of taking considerably longer than the DES to complete. Using university students and staff (N = 313), this paper investigated a 60-item version of the MID with the potential to capture the full range of dissociative symptoms that characterize each of the DD. Results indicate the MID-60 has a nearly identical factor structure to the full MID, excellent internal reliability, and content and convergent validity. Using the MID-60, at least 8% of participants at an Australian university were positive for a DD and, on average, participants self-reported having dissociative experiences 13% of the time. The present study’s findings suggest the MID-60 is a promising alternative to the DES, with results about the prevalence of DDs and dissociative experiences consistent with those found using clinical interviews and the DES.

KEYWORDS:

• Dissociation
• instruments
• prevalence
• multidimensional inventory of dissociation (MID)
• assessment

Appendix

You will be asked 60 questions about experiences you may have had in the past or are continuing to have in your life.

How often do you have the following experiences when you are not under the influence of alcohol or drugs?

Please circle zero if the experience never happens to you. If it happens sometimes but not all the time, circle a number between 1 and 9 that best describes how often it happens to you. Circle 10 if the experience is always happening to you.

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CALCULATING AND INTEPRETING THE MID-60: ADVICE FOR CLINICIANS AND RESEARCHERS

The mean MID-60 score is calculated by adding all items and dividing by 6. It represents the percentage of time the person reports having dissociative experiences, and can be interpreted as follows:

Table

To assist in your assessment, the scores for relevant MID- subscales can be calculated to determine whether these are clinically significant.

Table

CAUTION: The MID-60 is for screening purposes only. It is not a diagnostic tool. If the mean scores for the MID-60 and relevant subscales indicate a dissociative disorder is likely, you may wish administer the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders (SCID-D) or Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule (DDIS), or ask the respondent to complete the full MID, to provide diagnostic clarity.

An electronic copy of the MID-60 questionnaire, and a scoring template that automatically calculates the score the MID-60 and its subscales and compares these to the clinical cut-offs, are available online at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mary_Anne_Kate/research

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Department of Education and Training (Australia).