Since despite the immense resilience exhibited by Somali communities in resettlement, the behavioral health needs of these communities require effective and culturally appropriate psychological assessment tools that can be used across service and research sectors, the current study examined the psychometric properties and concurrent validity of the Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ), a transdiagnostic measure of cognitive fusion, in a sample of 233 (M age = 25.35; female = 45%) Somali young adults living in North America.
Results using confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the one-factor structure of the CFQ previously found in other diverse populations held in the present sample. The structure and related item loadings were invariant across three key variables: gender, age, and location of resettlement in North America. Importantly, cognitive fusion was meaningfully associated with aspects of clinical and psychosocial functioning thought to be highly relevant to this population, including posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms, thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness, and experiences of discrimination. Building upon the growing body of evidence supporting the CFQ’s strong psychometric properties across cultural groups, researchers, and clinicians should have an added degree of confidence and enthusiasm in utilizing this measure to support immigrant and refugee communities. (Publisher Abstract)