Cited by 345Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesPsychometric Methodologies and TestingChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Psychometric properties of the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) in a large representative sample of Finnish adolescents

Open access
Tiirikainen, Kati, Haravuori, Henna, Ranta, Klaus, Kaltiala-Heino, Riittakerttu, Marttunen, Mauri·2019·Psychiatry Research

Abstract

Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are common among adolescents and can lead to severe psychosocial impairment, yet there is a lack of a good quality scale to measure symptoms of generalized anxiety in young people. The 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) is a self-report scale used to measure GAD symptoms and has been validated in adult populations, but the measure's psychometric properties regarding adolescents are unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability, factorial validity, and construct validity of the GAD-7 in adolescents in a nationally representative sample from a general population. Our study was based on Finnish survey data on 111,171 adolescents aged 14-18 years. Our results show that the GAD-7 demonstrates good psychometric properties in adolescents. The internal consistency of the GAD-7 was good (Cronbach's α = 0.91) and the instrument's unidimensional factor structure was supported. The associations of GAD-7 sum scores with self-report measures of depression and social anxiety supported construct validity. The psychometric properties of the GAD-7 in this sample of adolescents were similar to those reported among adults. However, studies in which diagnostic interviews are performed are needed to demonstrate the diagnostic efficacy of the measure in this age group.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.psychres.2018.12.004

Cites

42 of 42 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Tiirikainen, K., Haravuori, H., Ranta, K., Kaltiala-Heino, R., & Marttunen, M.
Affiliations
  • Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (FI)
  • Helsinki University Hospital (FI)
Corresponding author
Tiirikainen, Kati
Venue
Psychiatry Research
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2019-02
Volume
272
Pages
30-35
ISSN
0165-1781 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2903552347
Cited by
345
References
41
Citations by year
2026: 32 · 2025: 52 · 2024: 71 · 2023: 66 · 2022: 53 · 2021: 48 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 7
FWCI
23.25
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Psychiatry Research (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
Keywords
Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, GAD-7, generalized anxiety disorder, adolescents, psychometric properties, reliability statistics, factorial validity, construct validity, internal consistency, anxiety symptoms, depression, social anxiety, Finnish adolescents
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Anxiety Disorders, Female, Finland, Humans, Male, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Psychometrics, Reproducibility of Results

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review