Testing Unidimensional Measures of State Anxiety In Healthy University Students Taking an Important Examination
Numeric rating scales (NRS) have been used in the clinical and research arenas when frequent, repeated assessments are needed (Larivee, Davis & Maguire, 1992) for the quantification of phenomena. These scales may either be visual (visual analogue scales, VAS) or verbal (verbal descriptor scales, VDS). Wewlers and Lowe (1990) critically examined visual analogue scales used in several studies and found them to reliable, with alpha coefficients from between .95-.99. Further, NRSs are endorsed by the Acute Pain Management Guideline Panel (1992) as a measure to quickly and accurately quantify pain experience. However, even though NRSs have been used by clinical nurses to assess unpleasant sensations other than pain, prior research (Wendler, 1999) has not established the validity and reliability of these tools as proxies for more established state anxiety tools (Spielberger, 1983). The primary purpose of this research was to determine the relationship between the experience of state anxiety as measured by the State/Trait Anxiety Inventory (State version, Spielberger, 1983) and five versions of unidimensional NRSs, in order to establish validity and reliability. The tools were tested on 59 University students facing a self-described important university examination, a condition which replicates the psychometric tests of the original Spielberger tool. Results indicate a moderately high correlation (Pearson’s correlation coefficient =.73-.81, P < .01) between all five NRSs and the state portion of the Spielberger State Anxiety Tool. The results of this study provide important information regarding the validity and reliability of NRSs used for the measurement of state anxiety that may also be useful in common clinical situations. Implications for clinical nursing are highlighted.
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