Dispositional Cancer Worry: Convergent, Divergent, and Predictive Validity of Existing Scales

Abstract

Objectives-Past research has suggested that dispositional cancer worry may be a key predictor of health behavior. The present study examined seven measures of dispositional cancer worry to see if they were significantly related (convergent validity), significantly different from similar but distinct traits (divergent validity), and capable of predicting cancer-relevant outcomes (predictive validity).Methods-489 undergraduate students completed a survey measuring dispositional worry, dispositional cancer worry, and perceived cancer risk.Results-Factor analysis identified four underlying dimensions that explained 67.3% of the variance in dispositional cancer worry: severity (42.8%), frequency (12.3%), psychological reactance (6.9%), and worry impact (5.3%). Four existing measures of dispositional cancer worry were found to represent each of these dimensions. In general, dispositional cancer worry measures were highly correlated with one another and only moderately correlated with measures of dispositional worry, supporting strong convergent and divergent validity. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that dispositional cancer worry measures predicted significant variance in cancer-relevant outcomes above and beyond dispositional worry. Conclusions-The results of this study support the notion that dispositional cancer worry and dispositional worry are distinct constructs. Furthermore, two dimensions of dispositional cancer worry (severity and frequency) seemed to have the strongest convergent, divergent, and predictive validity. Keywordscancer; worry; dispositional; scale validation; oncology Worry is a cognitive activity wherein an individual experiences a series of negative thoughts about an uncertain issue (Borkovec, Robinson, Pruzinsky, & Dupree, 1983). Situational or state-based worry is often triggered by an event and it is sometimes followed by attempts at problem-solving; for example, worrying about an approaching tax deadline could facilitate thinking about how an individual might reorganize his or her life to complete the necessary tax documents. However, worry can also be a long-term or routine activity directed at ambiguous or extremely distant events. When a person thinks in this way they are said to be prone to dispositional or trait-based worry. Dispositional worry is unfocused, vague, and sometimes indicative of poor problem solving (Pruzinsky & Borkovec, 1990; al., 1983;Tallis, Eysenck, & Mathews, 1991). Conceptually, a person could engage in dispositional worry about life in general or about a specific event or issue (e.g., dispositional cancer worry).Newly diagnosed cancer patients likely experience significant worry (i.e., state-based cancer worry), but even individuals who do not have cancer in their lives can dwell on the disease (i.e., trait-based cancer worry). The former has the potential to influence decision-making about the stimulus (Lehto & Cimprich, 2009), but the latter is of interest to researchers because past studies have suggested that this type of thinking may be rel...

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