Validity and Reliability of the Persian Version of the Regret Scale in Iranian Elderly

As people age, they often look back on their history to determine their accomplishments and shortcomings, which might cause them to feel regret. The present study was designed to assess the reliability and validity of the Persian version of the regret scale in the Iranian elderly. The research method was a descriptive evaluation type. The study was conducted in Tehran in 2023. The sample consisted of 293 elderly men and women, who were selected by available and online sampling methods. The elderly completed the demographic checklist, regret, psychological distress, and psychological well-being questionnaires. The psychometric properties of the regret scale were analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient in SPSS software and R software. The content validity of the questionnaire items was found to be satisfactory in terms of quality. The results of the factor analysis indicated that the regret scale had a single-factor structure. The model had an RMSEA of 0.07 and an SRMR of 0.04, which indicated the appropriateness of the model. The calculated values of other indices (GFI, CFI, NFI, NNFI, and IFI) were 0.99, 0.96, 0.94, 0.86, and 0.96, respectively, indicating that the obtained model was acceptable. Additionally, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.81. The findings indicated that the regret scale had construct validity and acceptable reliability among the Iranian elderly. Besides, the single-factor structure of this scale could help to identify regret in the Iranian elderly.