Validity and reliability of the Turkish Version of the Vaginal Penetration Cognition Questionnaire in a sample of women with vaginismus and dyspareunia

Objective: To examine reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Vaginal Penetration Cognition Questionnaire (VPCQ) in a Sample of Women with Vaginismus and Dyspareunia. Methods: A sample of 210 women with female sexual dysfunction (FSD) (70 women with lifelong vaginismus, 70 women with dyspareunia and 70 women without sexual complaints) completed the questionnaire. Factor analyses and validation measures were conducted in both women with and without FSD. Additionally, all participants completed Structured Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) regarding biographic and complaint characteristics. Results: Conduction of factor analyses yielded five subscale regarding cognitions about vaginal penetration: 'control cognitions,' 'positive cognitions,' 'self image cognitions,' 'catastrophic and pain conitions', and 'genital incompatibility cognitions.' Reliability of these five subscales of Turkish version VPCQ ranged from 0.56 to 0.93, and the test-retest correlations were satisfactory. Four subscales were able to detect significant differences between women with and without FSD. Women with lifelong vaginismus showed lower levels of perceived penetration control and genital incompatibility cognitions, when compared with women with dyspareunia. Conclusions: These results suggest that Turkish VPCQ is a reliable and valid brief self-report measure for assessing cognitions regarding vaginal penetration in women with vaginismus or dyspareunia.