Background:The Geriatric Anxiety Inventory is a 20-item geriatric-specific measure of anxiety severity. While studies suggest good internal consistency and convergent validity, divergent validity from measures of depression are weak. Clinical cutoffs have been developed that vary across studies due to the small clinical samples used. A six-item short form (GAI-SF) has been developed, and while this scale is promising, the research assessing the psychometrics of this scale is limited.Methods:This study examined the psychometric properties of GAI and GAI-SF in a large sample of 197 clinical geriatric participants with a comorbid anxiety and unipolar mood disorder, and a non-clinical control sample (N = 59).Results:The internal consistency and convergent validity with other measures of anxiety was adequate for GAI and GAI-SF. Divergent validity from depressive symptoms was good in the clinical sample but weak in the total and non-clinical samples. Divergent validity from cognitive functioning was good in all samples. The one-factor structure was replicated for both measures. Receiver Operating Characteristic analyses indicated that the GAI is more accurate at identifying clinical status than the GAI-SF, although the sensitivity and specificity for the recommended cutoffs was adequate for both measures.Conclusions:Both GAI and GAI-SF show good psychometric properties for identifying geriatric anxiety. The GAI-SF may be a useful alternative screening measure for identifying anxiety in older adults.

Background This study examined the relations between treatment process variables and child anxiety outcomes. Method Independent raters watched/listened to taped therapy sessions of 151 anxiety-disordered (6 -14 yr-old; M = 10.71) children (43% boys) and assessed process variables (child alliance, therapist alliance, child involvement, therapist flexibility and therapist functionality) within a manual-based cognitive-behavioral treatment. Latent growth modelling examined three latent variables (intercept, slope, and quadratic) for each process variable. Child age, gender, family income and ethnicity were examined as potential antecedents. Outcome was analyzed using factorially derived clinician, mother, father, child and teacher scores from questionnaire and structured diagnostic interviews at pretreatment, posttreatment and 12-month follow-up. Results Latent growth models demonstrated a concave quadratic curve for child involvement and therapist flexibility over time. A predominantly linear, downward slope was observed for alliance, and functional flexibility remained consistent over time. Increased alliance, child involvement and therapist flexibility showed some albeit inconsistent, associations with positive treatment outcome. Conclusion Findings support the notion that maintaining the initial high level of alliance or involvement is important for clinical improvement. There is some support that progressively increasing alliance/involvement also positively impacts on treatment outcome. These findings were not consistent across outcome measurement points or reporters.

The Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) is a widely used measure of worry severity. An 8-item abbreviated version (PSWQ-A) has been developed as a brief screening measure, although there are limited studies assessing the psychometric properties of this measure in a large geriatric population. The aim of this study was to assess the utility of the PSWQ-A compared to the full PSWQ, to identify pathological worry in an older adult sample (N=108) of clinically anxious and depressed older adults, compared to a non-clinical sample (N=53). The PSWQ and PSWQ-A were found to have similarly adequate reliability and validity. The factor structure of the PSWQ-A was replicated, but not for the PSWQ. Both measures accurately distinguished between clinical and non-clinical status with similar sensitivity and specificity. These findings indicate the PSWQ-A is a useful measure for screening or epidemiological studies assessing worry in geriatric populations.

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is an efficacious treatment for paediatric anxiety disorders, yet not all children improve following standard treatment protocols. Identifying pre-treatment predictors of poor treatment response is an important area of research to maximise outcomes for children with anxiety disorders. This paper presents a systematic review of pre-treatment predictors of child/adolescent anxiety treatment outcome, including child demographic, child diagnostic and parental factors. Results are based on 47 peer-reviewed articles and 4 dissertations. Results for each predictor are reported according to method of measuring outcome (e.g., endpoint or rate of change). No consistent and clear pre-treatment predictors of paediatric anxiety outcome were identified. Yet, it is worth noting that a number of trends emerged; some significant predictors were identified in more than one study including primary anxiety diagnosis, severity, comorbidity and parental anxiety/psychopathology. With regards to primary anxiety diagnosis, there was emerging evidence that Social Anxiety Disorder predicted poorer treatment response, while GAD predicted better outcome. Greater symptom severity and comorbid externalising symptoms/disorder were also associated with poorer treatment response but not dependably across studies. Some inconsistent evidence also emerged showing that presence of comorbidity, comorbid depression, parental psychopathology, parental anxiety and maternal anxiety were associated with poorer outcomes when outcome was assessed as an endpoint. There were a number of pre-treatment factors that were not related to treatment outcome: age, gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Based on a small number of studies, comorbid anxiety, maternal depression, paternal anxiety and paternal depression also failed to predict treatment outcome. Further methodologically strong research is needed to clarify the conclusions made in this review and to investigate a range of predictors considered under preliminary investigation.

Objective: This study examined whether differences in habitual negative self-thinking and coping strategies might contribute to the age differences in worry and depression. Method: 60 undergraduate students (age range: 18–24 years, M = 19.10, SD = 1.3) and 45 community-dwelling older adults (age range: 60–89 years, M = 73.5, SD = 7.5) participated. Participants completed self-report measures of worry, depression, negative self-thinking, and coping styles. Results: We replicated previous findings that older adults were less worried and less depressed than younger adults. Older adults also reported engaging in less habitual negative thinking and using more problem solving as a coping strategy than younger adults. Furthermore, negative self-thinking and problem-solving skills were found to partially mediate age differences in worry and fully mediate depression scores. Conclusions: These results suggest that habitual negative thinking and problem-solving skills play a role in explaining the lower rates of worry and depression in older populations.