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Background:The Geriatric Anxiety Inventory is a 20-item geriatric-specific measure of anxiety severity. While studies suggest good internal consistency and convergent validity, divergent validity from measures of depression are weak. Clinical cutoffs have been developed that vary across studies due to the small clinical samples used. A six-item short form (GAI-SF) has been developed, and while this scale is promising, the research assessing the psychometrics of this scale is limited.Methods:This study examined the psychometric properties of GAI and GAI-SF in a large sample of 197 clinical geriatric participants with a comorbid anxiety and unipolar mood disorder, and a non-clinical control sample (N = 59).Results:The internal consistency and convergent validity with other measures of anxiety was adequate for GAI and GAI-SF. Divergent validity from depressive symptoms was good in the clinical sample but weak in the total and non-clinical samples. Divergent validity from cognitive functioning was good in all samples. The one-factor structure was replicated for both measures. Receiver Operating Characteristic analyses indicated that the GAI is more accurate at identifying clinical status than the GAI-SF, although the sensitivity and specificity for the recommended cutoffs was adequate for both measures.Conclusions:Both GAI and GAI-SF show good psychometric properties for identifying geriatric anxiety. The GAI-SF may be a useful alternative screening measure for identifying anxiety in older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective: This study examined whether differences in habitual negative self-thinking and coping strategies might contribute to the age differences in worry and depression. Method: 60 undergraduate students (age range: 18–24 years, M = 19.10, SD = 1.3) and 45 community-dwelling older adults (age range: 60–89 years, M = 73.5, SD = 7.5) participated. Participants completed self-report measures of worry, depression, negative self-thinking, and coping styles. Results: We replicated previous findings that older adults were less worried and less depressed than younger adults. Older adults also reported engaging in less habitual negative thinking and using more problem solving as a coping strategy than younger adults. Furthermore, negative self-thinking and problem-solving skills were found to partially mediate age differences in worry and fully mediate depression scores. Conclusions: These results suggest that habitual negative thinking and problem-solving skills play a role in explaining the lower rates of worry and depression in older populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) is a widely used measure of worry severity. An 8-item abbreviated version (PSWQ-A) has been developed as a brief screening measure, although there are limited studies assessing the psychometric properties of this measure in a large geriatric population. The aim of this study was to assess the utility of the PSWQ-A compared to the full PSWQ, to identify pathological worry in an older adult sample ( N = 108) of clinically anxious and depressed older adults, compared to a non-clinical sample ( N = 53). The PSWQ and PSWQ-A were found to have similarly adequate reliability and validity. The factor structure of the PSWQ-A was replicated, but not for the PSWQ. Both measures accurately distinguished between clinical and non-clinical status with similar sensitivity and specificity. These findings indicate the PSWQ-A is a useful measure for screening or epidemiological studies assessing worry in geriatric populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]