The Anxiety Attitude and Belief Scale: initial psychometric properties in an undergraduate sample

✍ Scribed by Gary P. Brown; Michelle G. Craske; Philip Tata; Yuri Rassovsky; Jennie C. I. Tsao

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 97 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1063-3995
• DOI: 10.1002/1099-0879(200007)7:3<230::aid-cpp239>3.0.co;2-y

✦ Synopsis

The development of a measure of attitudes and beliefs intended to index a psychological vulnerability to anxiety problems is described. Items for the Anxiety Attitude and Belief Scale (AABS) were developed by polling researchers and clinicians active in the area of anxiety disorders. The initial psychometric properties of the resulting scale were examined in a sample of undergraduates. The three factors underlying the AABS appear to index theoretically interesting domains, and both the total and factor scores showed adequate reliability. Confirmatory factor analyses suggested that the AABS indexes a distinct, although likely overlapping, domain from the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (A. N. Weissman and A. T. Beck, presentation at the meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Chicago, IL, 1978), a theoretically related scale of cognitive vulnerability to depression and other emotional disorders. Finally, a cross-lagged panel analysis indicated no causal relationship between the AABS and depression. On the other hand, this analysis suggested a causal relationship between the AABS and anxiety, with prior AABS scores predicting later anxiety, rather than the reverse. Copy