Psychometric Properties of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale Among Saudi University Male Students
Open accessAbstract
Background: Various screening tools have been designed and developed to identify individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The current study aimed to assess the psychometric validation of the GAD-7 in Saudi university male students. Methods: Healthy university male students (n= 192) participated in this cross-sectional study. All the participants were informed about the study details. Participants were asked to complete the GAD-7, the Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and demographic details. Results: In general, the range of the GAD total score was 0– 21. There was no issue of the ceiling or floor effects as only 12.5% of participants reported the minimum score of 0, and none of the participants reported the maximum score of 21. The internal consistency score of the GAD-7 was found to be good (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.83). The internal homogeneity between item scores was 0.22– 0.57 as indicated by the “Spearman correlation coefficient ( r )”. The total scores and individual item scores of the GAD-7 were statistically associated with the PSS total score (correlation coefficient r = 0.21– 0.37), and scores of the 8th and 13th item of the SHI (correlation coefficient r = 0.17– 0.26, and 0.21– 0.40, respectively). The exploratory factor and confirmatory factor loadings of the GAD-7 items were ranged from 0.60 to 0.81 and 0.51 to 0.80, respectively. Conclusion: This study supported the use of the GAD-7 to assess the anxiety level among Saudi university students. Keywords: GAD-7, anxiety, stress, university students, validity, reliability
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The baseline levels of stress and anxiety among our participants were significantly higher than those found in the same population of university students by previous research and in the general population.
“The baseline levels of stress and anxiety among our participants were significantly higher than those found in the same population of university students by previous research [42-44], as well as in the general population [45].”
Previous studies analyzing the mental health of university students found lower levels of anxiety and stress symptoms, evaluated through the GAD-7 and the PSS-10 questionnaires, compared to our sample of university students.
“Previous studies analyzing the mental health of university students found lower levels of anxiety and stress symptoms, evaluated through the GAD-7 and the PSS-10 questionnaires, compared to those of our sample of university students [42-44].”
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“Previous studies analyzing the mental health of university students found lower levels of anxiety and stress symptoms, evaluated through the GAD-7 and the PSS-10 questionnaires, compared to those of our sample of university students [42-44].”
ResultAnwer, S., Manzar, M. D., Alghadir, A. H., Salahuddin, M., & Abdul Hameed, U. (2020) · Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment · doi:10.2147/ndt.s268582 · Cited by 92 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Alghadir, A., Manzar, M. D., Anwer, S., Albougami, A., & Salahuddin, M.
- Affiliations
- King Saud University (SA)
- Majmaah University (SA)
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK)
- Corresponding author
- Anwer, Shahnawaz
- Venue
- Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2020-06
- Volume
- Volume 16
- Pages
- 1427-1432
- ISSN
- 1176-6328 (ISSN-L)
- 1178-2021
- PMC
- PMC7292258
- OpenAlex
- W3033680871
- Cited by
- 52
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 8.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PolyU Institutional Research Archive (Hong Kong Polytechnic University) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Dove Medical Press (Taylor and Francis Group) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Funders
- King Saud University
- Majmaah University
- Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud University
- 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 › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Keywords
- GAD-7, generalized anxiety disorder, anxiety screening, psychometric validation, male university students, perceived stress, sleep hygiene, Saudi Arabia
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