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Ruminative Responses Scale

RRS
psychologyhealth sciencesFree for research use

Permission: Free for research use. Free for non-commercial academic research, with no license fee. Cite the original publication.

A 22-item measure of ruminative responses to depressed mood; a refined 10-item version separates maladaptive brooding from more neutral reflection.

Items
22
Response format
4-point frequency scale
Version
1.0
Subscales
2

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Rumination was measured with the 22-item Ruminative Responses Scale (Nolen-Hoeksema & Morrow, 1991), whose brooding and reflection subscales (Treynor et al., 2003) showed acceptable internal consistency (α = .77 and .72).

Citing this in a methods section? This scale spans more than one discipline, so the style depends on where you publish. See the APA 7 or Vancouver guides, or compare all six citation styles.

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Reliability & validation

Validation population
Community adults (Treynor et al., 2003)
Cronbach's α
0.72–0.77

Subscales

BroodingReflection

Response anchors

Almost never · Sometimes · Often · Almost always

Known limitations

The original 22-item total overlaps with depression item content, which inflates its association with depression; the refined brooding and reflection subscales are only five items each.

Original citation

Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Morrow, J. (1991). A prospective study of depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms after a natural disaster: The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(1), 115-121.

https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.61.1.115

Questions researchers ask

What does the RRS measure?

A 22-item measure of ruminative responses to depressed mood; a refined 10-item version separates maladaptive brooding from more neutral reflection.

How many items does the RRS have?

The Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS) has 22 items across 2 subscales: Brooding, Reflection.

Is the RRS free to use?

The RRS is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.

Is the RRS reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.72–0.77. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the RRS, and how do I cite it?

Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Morrow, J. (1991). A prospective study of depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms after a natural disaster: The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(1), 115-121. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.61.1.115

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Library entry verified September 2026. Metadata is provided for reference. Questionnaires are built in Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing, and can be taken to Qualtrics, Google Forms or Microsoft Forms, with their CSV responses brought back for scoring.