A Norwegian adaptation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire: factor structure, reliability, validity and norms

A Norwegian version of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) was administered to 304 undergraduate students together with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Maudsley Obsessive Compulsive Inventory (MOCI). The PSWQ was also administered to a community sample comprising 879 subjects, together with the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI II) and the White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI). Structural equation modeling showed that a three-factor solution of the PSWQ gave the best goodness of fit. The Norwegian version of the PSWQ demonstrated adequate psychometric properties in terms of reliability and validity in both samples. Females scored higher than males on PSWQ.