The Psychometric Properties of the Florida Obsessive Compulsive Inventory: Examination in a Non-Clinical Sample

Despite relatively high prevalence rates, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) tends to be under-diagnosed in the general population. Thus, there is a need for brief OCD measures that offer a quick evaluation of both the presence and severity of OCD symptoms. With this in mind, the current study examined the phenomenology of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and the psychometric properties of the Florida Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (FOCI; Storch et al., 2007) in a non-clinical sample of 253 college students. The FOCI Symptom Checklist and the Severity Scale both demonstrated good internal consistency (.83). The concurrent and divergent validity of the FOCI was supported through correlations with the OCI-R (corrected correlation with the FOCI Symptom Checklist = .84), the BDI-II (r = .55), and the STAI Anxiety (r = .66) and Depression (r = .47) factors. The current findings add to clinical data that suggest that the FOCI is a psychometrically sound assessment tool that can be used to efficiently identify individuals experiencing symptoms of OCD and develop campus-wide educational programs that would increase OCD awareness and encourage college students suffering from OCD to seek appropriate treatment.