A MULTIDIMENSIONAL MEASURE OF WORRY - DEVELOPMENT AND PRELIMINARY VALIDATION OF THE ANXIOUS THOUGHTS INVENTORY

This paper reports the development of a dispositional self-report meas ure of multiple dimensions of generalised worry. Factor analyses demon strated a replicable three factor structure indicating that this measu re of worry comprises three basic dimensions: social worry, health wor ry, and meta-worry. The first two factors reflect different content di mensions whereas the meta-worry factor consists of both content and pr ocess dimensions of worry. Individual differences in subscale scores s how moderate stability over time, and the subscales possess good psych ometric properties. Significant correlations were found between worry subscales and personality dimensions of self-consciousness and EPI sco res. The role of multi-dimensional measurement in the exploration of w orry is discussed.