Understanding Indecisiveness: Dimensionality of Two Self-Report Questionnaires and Associations With Depression and Indecision

Public Significance Statement Questionnaires that assess indecisiveness can likely be improved by only including straightforwardly worded items and removing reverse-scored items; the reverse-scored items seem to capture decision-making confidence, which is separate from indecisiveness. Indecisiveness, but not decision-making confidence, was strongly associated with symptoms of depression. Indecisiveness is a prevalent and impairing symptom among individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the use of different self-report questionnaires and factor analysis methods in past research has been a barrier to understanding the nature of indecisiveness in depression. Addressing these barriers could help to elucidate the dimensionality and validity of indecisiveness questionnaires, which in turn would clarify the relation of indecisiveness to depression. In our study of an online sample of adults (N = 602), we administered two commonly used indecisiveness questionnaires, a depressive symptom questionnaire, and a behavioral task assessing indecision. Through confirmatory factor analysis, we found that the combined indecisiveness questionnaires were best characterized by a two-factor model, with one factor corresponding to straightforwardly worded items and the other corresponding to reverse-scored items. Based on post hoc analyses involving tests of discriminant validity, we think that these two factors represent indecisiveness and decision-making confidence, respectively. Indecisiveness, but not decision-making confidence, was strongly associated with depressive symptoms. Indecisiveness was also strongly associated with behavioral indecision, a finding that helps to validate indecisiveness as a construct. We posit that the assessment of indecisiveness could be enhanced by excluding the reverse-scored items because they appear to represent decision-making confidence, a distinct construct from indecisiveness. Excluding the reverse-scored items revealed a robust link between indecisiveness and depressive symptoms, highlighting the importance of targeting this symptom in depression research.