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New approaches on the study of the psychometric properties of the STAI

Authors

ORTUÑO SIERRA, JAVIER, Garcia-Velasco, Lorena , Inchausti, Felix , Debbane, Martin , Fonseca-Pedrero, Eduardo

External publication

No

Means

Actas Esp Psiquiatr

Scope

Article

Nature

Científica

JCR Quartile

SJR Quartile

JCR Impact

1.339

SJR Impact

0.367

Publication date

01/05/2016

ISI

000377782000001

Scopus Id

2-s2.0-84974728188

Abstract

Introduction. The main purpose of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI1). Previous studies have indicated different factor solutions. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of consensus about the best dimensional model of STAI scores. Method. The sample consisted of 417 participants, composed of 387 (29.71% male) healthy participants (comparison group: M=35.5 years; SD=8.40), and 30 (36.66% male) patient (clinical group M=35.8 years; SD=12.94). Results. The internal consistency evaluated through Ordinal Alpha was good, 0.98 and 0.94 in the non-clinical and the clinical samples, respectively. Test-retest reliability (two weeks) for Total Score was 0.81 for the non-clinical subsample, and 0.93 for the clinical subsample. Confirmatory factor analyses supported both a four factor model and bifactor model. Also, STAI scores showed statistically significant correlations with Burns Anxiety Inventory (Burns-A) scores. Furthermore, results showed statistically significant differences in the mean scores of the STAI between the clinical and the non-clinical subsamples. Conclusions. The psychometric properties of the STAI were adequate. The present study contributes to better understand the STAI structure through the comparison of new approaches in the study of the STAI internal structure. The results found may contribute in the efforts to improve the evaluation and identification of anxiety symptoms and disorders.

Keywords

Anxiety; STAI; Validation; Psychometric properties; Self-report; Validity