Psychometric Properties of the Portuguese version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory applied to college students: factor analysis and relation to the Beck Depression Inventory

The psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the trait form of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T) and its relation to the Beck Dep ression Inventory (BDI) were evaluated in a large Brazilian college student sample containing 845 women and 235 men. STAI-T scores tended to be higher for women, singles, those who work, and subjects under 30 years. Factor an alysis of the STAI-T for total sample and by gender yielded two factors: th e first representing a mood dimension and the second being related to worry ing or cognitive aspects of anxiety. In order to study the relation between anxiety and depression measures, factor analysis of the combination of the 21 BDI items and the 20 STAI-T items was also carried out. The analysis re sulted in two factors that were analyzed according to the tripartite model of anxiety and depression. Most of the BDI items (measuring positive affect ivity and nonspecific symptoms of depression) were loaded on the first fact or and four STAI-T items that measure positive affectivity. The remaining S TAI-T items, all of them measuring negative affect, remained in the second factor. Thus, factor 1 represents a depression dimension and factor 2 measu res a mood-worrying dimension. The findings of this study suggest that, alt hough widely used as an anxiety scale, the STAT-T in fact measures mainly a general negative affect.