I am Worried: Do the PSWQ and PSWQ-A Display Measurement Invariance Across Four Racial Groups?

Area of Science:

• Psychological assessment
• Racial and ethnic studies
• Psychopathology research

Background:

• Psychological measures are often validated on predominantly White samples.
• Previous research on the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) and race has yielded inconsistent findings.
• This inconsistency poses challenges for cross-racial score comparisons.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the measurement invariance of the PSWQ and PSWQ-A across White, Black, Asian, and Hispanic racial groups.
• To determine if the PSWQ and PSWQ-A can be reliably used for comparative analysis across diverse racial demographics.
• To address the gap in understanding the psychometric properties of worry measures in different racial populations.

Main Methods:

• Utilized confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on a sample of 2,489 undergraduate students.
• Assessed measurement invariance for the full-length PSWQ and the abbreviated PSWQ-A.
• Examined one-factor, two-factor, and one-factor with method effects models for the PSWQ.

Main Results:

• The full-length PSWQ demonstrated poor model fit across all racial groups.
• Modified models for the full-length PSWQ showed some improvement but had limitations.
• The PSWQ-A exhibited good model fit and demonstrated measurement invariance (configural, metric, scalar) across all four racial groups.

Conclusions:

• The PSWQ-A is a psychometrically sound measure for assessing worry across diverse racial groups.
• Direct comparisons of PSWQ-A scores between racial groups are appropriate and statistically valid.
• Findings support the use of the PSWQ-A in research and clinical settings involving diverse populations.