Mood and anxiety symptom questionnaire anxiety items in an adult british clinical sample: One scale or two?

In seeking to establish British clinical normative data for the two anxiety scales (anxious symptoms and anxious arousal) of the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (MASQ), the responses of 237 British National Health Service outpatients were examined. Factor analyses (exploratory and confirmatory) failed to confirm the expected structure. Data were presented and discussed, considering the 28 anxiety item pool in terms of being either two highly correlated scales of somatic anxiety versus psychological anxiety, or as a single general anxiety scale. As neither of these outcomes accorded with the test constructors' assumptions, it was concluded that the MASQ is not a suitable measure for assessing the tripartite model of adverse mood states in British clinical samples. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Message: • Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses failed to confirm the a priori MASQ anxiety items' structure. • Alternative explanations were of either a) two highly correlated scales of somatic anxiety and psychological anxiety or b) a single general anxiety scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]