Reliability, validity, and normative data of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire in 8-12-yr-old children
Abstract
The Penn State Worry Questionnaire for Children (PSWQ-C) is a 14-item self-report questionnaire that intends to measure the tendency of children to engage in excessive, generalized, and uncontrollable worry (Chorpita et al., Behav. Res. Ther. 35 (1997) 569-581). The current study further examined the reliability and validity of the PSWQ-C in a large sample of 8-12-yr-old children (N = 486). Psychometric evaluation indicates that it is preferable to discard the three reverse scored items from the PSWQ-C when using the measure in this particular age group. The shortened 11-item PSWQ-C turned out to be reliable in terms of internal consistency and correlated meaningful with a scale measuring anxiety disorders symptoms. That is, PSWQ-C scores were significantly associated with all types of anxiety disorders symptoms but in particular with symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. Normative data of the PSWQ-C are provided against which scores of individual children in this age range can be compared.
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The PSWQ-C has been shown to yield a Cronbach's coefficient alpha of 0.89 for young children.
“The PSWQ-C has been shown to yield a Cronbach's coefficient alpha of 0.89 for young children (Muris, Meesters, & Gobel, 2001).”
From The efficacy of a group-based, disorder-specific treatment program for childhood GAD - A randomized controlled trial (2014) · cites this paper as Muris et al., 2001
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- Authors
- Muris, P., Meesters, C., & Gobel, M.
- Affiliations
- Maastricht University (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Muris, Peter
- Venue
- Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2001-06
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 63-72
- ISSN
- 0005-7916 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2030763889
- Cited by
- 99
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 3.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Keywords
- excessive worry, children, psychometric properties, reliability statistics, validity, reference values, generalized anxiety disorder, self-report questionnaire
- MeSH terms
- Anxiety Disorders, Child, Female, Humans, Male, Psychometrics, Surveys and Questionnaires, Reference Values, Severity of Illness Index, Reproducibility of Results
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