PSYCHOMETRIC COMPARABILITY OF THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE AND SPANISH-LANGUAGE VERSIONS OF THE STATE-TRAIT ANXIETY INVENTORY

The psychometric adequacy of the English- and Spanish-language version s of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was compared across Engl ish-speaking Latino American women (n = 17) and men (n = 18) and Spani sh-speaking Latino American women (n = 10) and men (n = 14) who were e xperiencing stressful and potentially anxiety-producing situations ass ociated with physical pain. Subjects were administered the STAI as wel l as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) in their p referred language. Psychometric comparisons of language group and gend er revealed nonsignificant differences in (a) mean scores on the STAI scales, (b) internal consistency for the STAI scales, and (c) correlat ions between the STAI scales and MMPI scales. item analyses identified several salient screening items for the Spanish-speaking men; several items with low item-remainder correlations were revealed for the Engl ish- and Spanish speaking women. Overall, results attest to the psycho metric strengths of the English- and Spanish-language versions of the STAI.