Psychometric properties of a brief version of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire in African Americans and European Americans.

Abstract

The reliable and valid assessment of chronic worry in African Americans is vital when attempting to draw cross-cultural comparisons between African Americans and other ethnic groups. As such, the current study examined the psychometric properties of a brief version of a gold standard assessment of chronic worry, specifically the Penn State Worry Questionnaire-Abbreviated (PSWQ-A; Hopko et al., 2003) in a college sample of African Americans (n = 100) and European Americans (n = 121). Results indicated that the PSWQ-A total score has good internal consistency and convergent validity with another measure of anxiety, but less than favorable discriminant validity with a measure of depression in African American and European American students. Also, the 1-factor solution for the 8-item PSWQ-A had excellent model fit in our full sample and was partially invariant between ethnic groups. Collectively, the present study provides evidence that the PSWQ-A is a psychometrically sound option for assessing chronic worry and suggests that this brief measure may enhance the time efficiency and clinical utility of research and clinical assessments in ethnically diverse samples. (PsycINFO Database Record

Ethnic Identity and Regional Differences in Mental Health in a National Sample of African American Young Adults

“…As shown in Table 2, the two-factor model exhibited measurement invariance (or relatively equal fit the two-factor structure of the MEIM) as model parameters were progressively constrained to be equal between the two samples. Importantly, such measurement invariance warrants the use of the two factor structure to compare mean ethnic identity scores between samples [39]. In our final invariant model, the Affirmation/Belonging and Exploration subscales were positively correlated (r = .774, p < .001).…”

“…After establishing a good fitting model within our full sample, we conducted a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis according to guidelines outlined by Byrne [37] and Kline [38] to compare the overall fit of the MEIM factor structure between our sample of Southern (n=150) and non-Southern (n=145) African Americans. Such analyses "systemically compares the unstandardized solutions of measurement models with differing constrained parameters (e.g., factor loadings) to identify any non-equivalence between groups" [39]. Specifically, the authors first constrained factor loadings to be equal between the two samples and compared the model fit to an unconstrained model (i.e., all parameters allowed to vary freely between the two samples).…”

“…The two-factor model generated from the aforementioned CFA was utilized as the base model for our measurement equivalence analyses. At each level of the analyses, a nonsignificant chi-square difference test, a change in CFI values less than .005, decrease in Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) values, and changes in RMSEA values falling within the 90% confidence interval of the less restricted model were used as indicators of parameter invariances between Southern and non-Southern African American samples [39][40]. As shown in Table 2, the two-factor model exhibited measurement invariance (or relatively equal fit the two-factor structure of the MEIM) as model parameters were progressively constrained to be equal between the two samples.…”

Cross-Cultural and Gender Invariance of Five Common Symptom and Cognitive Vulnerability Measures in the United States and Singapore

“…At the same time, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in the study by Nuevo et al (2007) revealed gender non-invariance such that women endorsed items related to situational or contingency-related worries higher than men. Extending these findings, DeLapp et al (2016) found strong PSWQ-A measurement equivalence between European Americans and African Americans. Also, in that study, European Americans tended to report greater symptom severity on items assessing uncontrollability of chronic worry.…”

“…The 8-item PSWQ-A measures uncontrollability and excessiveness of worry (Hopko et al, 2003). It has shown moderate-to-large retest reliability (r = .63-.87) and internal consistency (α = .87-.94) in European American and African American samples (DeLapp et al, 2016). Internal consistencies were also strong in the present sample (U.S.: ω = .93; SG: ω = .92; Males: ω = .93; Females: ω = .93).…”