Abbreviated version of Penn State Worry Questionnaire for Chinese adolescents: Age, gender and longitudinal invariance

• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1086592
• Publication Date: 2023-03-22T13:34:27Z
• Authors: Shan-Shan Xie; Hui-Wen Xiao; Rong-Mao Lin
• Keywords: measurement invariance; Psychiatry; Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ); longitudinal measurement; worry; RC435-571; adolescents; 3. Good health

The abbreviated version of Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ-A) has been widely used to assess worry. However, its measurement invariance has been not yet warranted. With a cross-sectional and a longitudinal sample of Chinese adolescents (N1 = 1,329, N2 = 408), this study examined age, gender, and longitudinal invariance of PSWQ-A. Results supported strict invariance, including configural, metric, scalar, and error level, across gender and age in the cross-sectional sample; strict longitudinal measurement invariance was also supported in the longitudinal sample. This study suggests the application of the PSWQ-A in measuring adolescent worry and a basis for comparisons of different populations and occasions for worry.