The claustrophobia questionnaires

The content and psychometric properties of the Claustrophobia Questionnaire (CLQ) are described. An earlier version of the CLQ was developed to test t he hypothesis that claustrophobia is comprised of two distinct but related fears - the fear of suffocation and the fear of restriction [J. Anxiety Dis ord. 7 (1993) 281.]. The scale was used to assess patients undergoing the m agnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedure [J. Behav. Med. 21 (1998) 255.] a nd in participants with panic disorder [J. Abnorm. Psychol. 105 (1996) 146; Taylor, S., Rachman, S., & Radomsky, A. S. (1996). The prediction of panic : a comparison of suffocation false alarm and cognitive theories. Unpublish ed data.]. On the basis of these studies, we decided to revise and shorten the CLQ, collect nonnative data, and provide information on the scale's pre dictive and discriminant validity as well as its internal consistency and t est-retest reliability. This was done through a set of four interconnected studies that included psychometric analyses of undergraduate and community adult questionnaire responses and behavioural testing. Results indicate tha t the CLQ has good predictive and discriminant validity as well as good int ernal consistency and test-retest reliability. The CLQ appears to be a reli able and sensitive measure of claustrophobia and its component fears. We en courage the use of the CLQ in a variety of clinical and research applicatio ns. The scale is provided in this paper for public use. (C) 2001 Elsevier S cience Inc. All rights reserved.