Omnibus Rumination Inventories Consistently Reveal Unconstructive, Constructive, and Positive Repetitive Thought as Rumination's Major Factors

Numerous questionnaires and scales have been developed to measure trait rumination and related constructs (e.g., perseverative cognition, self-preoccupation, repetitive thought, etc.) over the past three decades. These tools measure various depressive, dysphoric, anxious, angry, positive, stress-related, trauma-related, illness-related, and goal-related forms of repetitive thought. Evaluations of the distinctiveness of these constructs has been limited to piecemeal comparisons of scale/subscale total scores during each scale’s development and psychometric evaluation, affording no higher-order view of the key constructs in this theoretical domain. Here, we took the novel approach of synthesizing items from 87 prevailing and representative rumination and repetitive thought subscales into two versions of an elaborate inventory for statistical exploration. Exploratory factor analysis of 821 online responses that was cross-validated between the two versions of the inventory revealed a reliable three-factor structure not fully captured by any existing instrument: Unconstructive Rumination, Constructive Rumination, and Positive Rumination. Lower-order models were also supported, in which several Unconstructive Rumination subfactors were observed: Negative Rumination, Angry Rumination, Illness Rumination, Pessimistic/Hopeless Rumination, and Counterfactual/Self-Critical Rumination. This structure is much more parsimonious than the abundance of existing scales would suggest. They also support the notion that rumination does not simply involve negative cognitions, as traditionally thought, but constructive and positive ones as well. Researchers and clinicians are encouraged to distinguish among these different kinds of rumination in empirical investigations and clinical practice.