Robust Dimensions of Anxiety Sensitivity: Development and Initial Validation of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3

• Published in: Psychological assessment 2007-06, Vol.19 (2), p.176-188
• Main Authors: Taylor, Steven, Zvolensky, Michael J, Cox, Brian J, Deacon, Brett, Heimberg, Richard G, Ledley, Deborah Roth, Abramowitz, Jonathan S, Holaway, Robert M, Sandin, Bonifacio, Stewart, Sherry H, Coles, Meredith, Eng, Winnie, Daly, Erin S, Arrindell, Willem A, Bouvard, Martine, Cardenas, Samuel Jurado
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Anxiety; Anxiety - diagnosis; Anxiety - psychology; Anxiety Disorders; Anxiety Disorders - diagnosis; Anxiety Disorders - psychology; Anxiety disorders. Neuroses; Anxiety Sensitivity; Arousal; Arousal Patterns; Biological and medical sciences; Canada; Cognitive Processes; Confirmatory Factor Analysis; Factor Analysis; Factor Structure; Fear; Female; Foreign Countries; France; Human; Humans; Male; Measurement; Measurement Techniques; Medical sciences; Mental health; Mexico; Miscellaneous; Netherlands; Personality Inventory - statistics & numerical data; Physical Characteristics; Psychiatry; Psychological tests; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics; Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems; Psychopathology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Sensitivity and Specificity; Social Influences; Somatoform Disorders - diagnosis; Somatoform Disorders - psychology; Spain; Symptoms (Individual Disorders); Techniques and methods; Test Reliability; Test Validity; United States
• ISSN: 1040-3590; 1939-134X
• DOI: 10.1037/1040-3590.19.2.176

Accumulating evidence suggests that anxiety sensitivity (fear of arousal-related sensations) plays an important role in many clinical conditions, particularly anxiety disorders. Research has increasingly focused on how the basic dimensions of anxiety sensitivity are related to various forms of psychopathology. Such work has been hampered because the original measure-the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI)-was not designed to be multidimensional. Subsequently developed multidimensional measures have unstable factor structures or measure only a subset of the most widely replicated factors. Therefore, the authors developed, via factor analysis of responses from U.S. and Canadian nonclinical participants ( n = 2,361), an 18-item measure, the ASI-3, which assesses the 3 factors best replicated in previous research: Physical, Cognitive, and Social Concerns. Factorial validity of the ASI-3 was supported by confirmatory factor analyses of 6 replication samples, including nonclinical samples from the United States and Canada, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Spain ( n = 4,494) and a clinical sample from the United States and Canada ( n = 390). The ASI-3 displayed generally good performance on other indices of reliability and validity, along with evidence of improved psychometric properties over the original ASI.