A scoping investigation into dampening and positive rumination strategies: Factor and meta-analytic findings of the Responses to positive affect scale in clinical and non-clinical adult populations.

The Responses to Positive Affect (RPA) scale is a widely used 17-item self-report measure that assesses positive rumination and dampening, or the tendency to upregulate or downregulate PA, respectively. The RPA includes one dampening subscale and two positive rumination subscales: self- and emotion-focused. Past work has highlighted the theoretical overlap between the two positive rumination subscales, suggesting that they be combined into one overall amplifying subscale. However, there are mixed applications of this in the literature; yet, no factor analyses have been conducted with multiple samples to examine the statistical difference between the 2- and 3-factor solution of the RPA. Thus, the current multi-site design pooled nine datasets in the United States and United Kingdom, with both clinical and non-clinical samples, to statistically evaluate the 2- and 3-factor solutions across all samples (N = 1995) and examine their association with psychiatric symptoms and affect using meta-analytic techniques. The current findings indicate that the 3-factor solution (CFI = 0.929, TLI = 0.918, RMSEA = 0.068, SRMR = 0.045) outperformed the 2-factor solution (Δχ2(2) = 140.46, RMSEA = 0.187, p < .001) in the 16-item RPA. Further, our meta-analytic findings indicate important nuances between the two positive rumination subscales, with each one demonstrating unique associations with psychiatric symptoms and affect that are otherwise not found when combined into a single amplifying subscale. Taken together, our findings provide support for the 3-factor solution across all samples, and future work should further aim to disentangle the two positive rumination subscales from one another given their unique associations with depression, anxiety, anhedonia and affect and affect.