ABSTRACT
Background
Decision-making styles reflect stable individual tendencies in approaching choices and have been found to relate to health behaviors, clinical decisions, and psychosocial outcomes. The General Decision-Making Style (GDMS) questionnaire is a widely used instrument that assesses five distinct decision-making styles. This scale has been translated into many languages but not in Arabic, and has demonstrated robust psychometric properties across multiple cultural contexts. To address the absence of a validated tool for assessing general decision-making styles in Arabic-speaking populations, this study aimed to evaluate the validity, reliability and factor structure of the 20-item version of the GDMS questionnaire.
Methods
This cross-sectional study conducted between the months of November and December 2024 included 536 Lebanese Arabic speaking participants.
Results
Confirmatory factor analysis results supported the original five factor structure. Internal reliability was satisfactory as evidenced by both McDonald’s omega and Cronbach’s alpha: Systematic (ω = 0.76/α = 0.76), Intuitive (ω = 0.58/α = 0.58), Dependent (ω = 0.72/α = 0.72), Avoidant (ω = 0.71/α = 0.70) and Spontaneous (ω = 0.67/α = 0.66). Measurement invariance across sex was confirmed, with significant higher mean dependent decision making found in females compared to males whereas higher mean spontaneous decision-making style was found in males compared to females. No significant difference was found between males and females in terms of systematic, intuitive and avoidant decision-making styles. Higher systematic, dependent and intuitive styles were significantly associated with better work engagement and wellbeing.
Conclusion
This study provides a reliable and valid Arabic version of the 20-item GDMS for assessing different general decision-making styles in Arabic-speaking populations. The scale has potential applications in several targeted applications in healthcare and research.