Psychometric properties of the Looming Maladaptive Style Questionnaire (LMSQ-R) in young Spanish adults

The looming cognitive style (LCS) is a specific putative cognitive vulnerability to anxiety but not to depression. LCS is assessed by the Looming Maladaptive Style Questionnaire (LMSQ-R), which assesses a tendency to generate, maintain, and attend to internally generated scenarios of threats as rapidly increasing and headed in one's direction. This study investigated the structure, measurement invariance across subsamples, concurrent validity, consistency, and stability of a Spanish translation of the LMSQ-R.

LMSQ-R was examined in a large sample of Spanish students (n = 1,128, 56.47% women). A subsample of 675 was followed-up six months later. The participants also completed measures of social anxiety, generalized anxiety, and depression.

The results provide evidence from factor analyses confirming two second-order factors (social and physical threat). Multiple-group analysis indicated the measurement invariance of the model for men and women and for groups that displayed clinically significant generalized social anxiety and those that did not. Women scored higher on the LMSQ-R. Partial correlation analyses indicated that LMSQ-R scales were independently associated with symptoms of generalized and social anxiety but they were not independently associated with depression.

The Spanish version of the LMSQ-R has shown good psychometric properties.