Polish adaptation of emotional Stroop test in assessment of pedophilia – A pilot study

Abstract

Aim. A pilot study was conducted in order to construct a Polish adaptation of the emotional Stroop test in assessment of pedophilia. Material and method. The study consisted of two stages. The first stage involved creating test material by ranking words in adequate lists by competent experts. The second stage consisted of empirical verification of the principle of the emotional Stroop test in a non-clinical population. Results. Based on the assessment of five competent experts, words were ordered from the most to the least sexually arousing (Kendall’s W from 0.368 to 0.693). Six ranked lists were obtained, and the competent experts were subsequently asked to assess whether these lists were suitable for the study (Lawshe’s Content Validity Ratio from 0.6 to 1.0). Two categories of words were merged. Five ranked lists were obtained, and the competent experts were subsequently asked again to assess whether these lists were suitable for the study (Lawshe’s Content Validity Ratio 1.0). The created lists of words were approved by all competent experts. Based on the experimental study conducted on a non-clinical population, it was shown that, in accordance with the principle of the test, the mean response time for sexually-related words was longer than for neutral words. The mean response time for children-related words did not differ significantly from the response time for neutral words. Conclusions. Based on the study with competent experts and conducted experiments, an initial Polish adaptation of the emotional Stroop test for diagnosis of pedophilia has been created. Further studies with persons with pedophilia are needed to implement the test in clinical setting.