Catastrophizing is a cognitive process that can be defined as predicting the worst possible outcome. It has been shown to be related to psychiatric diagnoses such as depression and anxiety, yet there are no self-report questionnaires specifically measuring it outside the context of pain research. Here we therefore, develop a novel, comprehensive self-report measure of general catastrophizing. We performed five online studies (total n = 734), in which we created and refined a Catastrophizing Questionnaire, and used a factor analytic approach to understand its underlying structure. We also assessed convergent and discriminant validity, and analysed test–retest reliability. Furthermore, we tested the ability of Catastrophizing Questionnaire scores to predict relevant clinical variables over and above other questionnaires. Finally, we also developed a four-item short version of this questionnaire. We found that our questionnaire is best fit by a single underlying factor, and shows convergent and discriminant validity. Exploratory factor analyses indicated that catastrophizing is independent from other related constructs, including anxiety and worry. Moreover, we demonstrate incremental validity for this questionnaire in predicting diagnostic and medication status. Finally, we demonstrate that our Catastrophizing Questionnaire has good test–retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.77, p < 0.001). Critically, we can now, for the first time, obtain detailed self-report data on catastrophizing.

灾难化是一种认知过程，可以定义为预测最坏的可能结果。它已被证明与抑郁症和焦虑症等精神疾病诊断有关，但在疼痛研究背景之外，还没有专门测量它的自我报告问卷。因此，我们在这里开发了一种新颖的、全面的一般灾难化自我报告措施。我们进行了五项在线研究（总计n = 734），其中我们创建并完善了灾难化问卷，并使用因子分析方法来了解其基本结构。我们还评估了收敛效度和判别效度，并分析了重测信度。此外，我们还测试了灾难化问卷评分预测相关临床变量的能力（优于其他问卷）。最后，我们还制定了该调查问卷的四项简短版本。我们发现我们的调查问卷最适合单一的潜在因素，并显示出收敛和判别效度。探索性因素分析表明，灾难化独立于其他相关的概念，包括焦虑和担忧。此外，我们证明了该问卷在预测诊断和药物状态方面的增量有效性。最后，我们证明我们的灾难化问卷具有良好的重测信度（组内相关系数 = 0.77， p < 0.001）。至关重要的是，我们现在第一次可以获得有关灾难化的详细自我报告数据。