NEED WE MEASURE ANXIETY DIFFERENTLY FOR MALES AND FEMALES

Using 2 separate large samples of children (N-1 = 957 and N-2 = 3,885) and I smaller sample of adolescents and adults (N-3 = 416). 3 studies of item selection for measurement of anxiety were conducted to determ ine if item selection differed across gender when traditional psychome tric methods were applied. Applying a common set of item selection rul es for males and for females, the same items were selected for inclusi on on various measures of anxiety with differing item-response formats with comparable internal consistency reliability obtained using separ ate gender and combined gender samples. Standard psychometric methods indicate anxiety is measured in males and females about equally well a nd by essentially the same items.