Determining the Psychometric Properties of Siddiqui Anxiety Scale-Revised

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the psychometric properties of the Siddiqui Anxiety Scale (Hasnain & Siddiqui, 1993) in the Pakistani community. A pilot study with 15 males and 15 females (mean age = 25.07 years) was carried out to reassess its language and comprehensiveness, followed by a committee review by four mental health professionals. The validity and reliability estimates of Siddiqui Anxiety Scale-Revised (SAS-R) with 27 items were determined in the main study, using a convenient sample of university students (N=494) including 215 males and 279 females with a mean age of 20.8 years. Cronbach’s alpha reliability of SAS-R was found to be 0.90. The exploratory factor analysis revealed two factors in SAS-R (i.e., cognitive-affective and somatic), accounting for 34.48% cumulative variance. The convergent and divergent validity was determined by comparing it with Urdu translations of Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) (Raza, 2013) and Life Orientation Scale-Revised (LOT-R) (Shaheen, Tabassum, & Andleeb, 2015), respectively. SAS-R has a positive correlation with BAI and a significant negative correlation with LOT-R for optimism subscale and pessimism subscale. Furthermore, a cut-off score of 30 was determined using ROC curve analysis, obtaining a sensitivity index of 81.4 %, specificity index of 77.66%, the positive predictive power of 53.3%, and negative predictive power of 93% in the community sample. The psychometric properties of SAS-R are found to be robust enough to be recommended for screening anxiety symptoms in the Pakistani community.