Psychometric properties of the generalized anxiety disorder scale among Saudi University male students

Abstract

Background: Various screening tools have been designed and developed to identify individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The current study aimed to assess the psychometric validation of the GAD-7 in Saudi university male students. Methods: Healthy university male students (n= 192) participated in this cross-sectional study. All the participants were informed about the study details. Participants were asked to complete the GAD-7, the Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and demographic details. Results: In general, the range of the GAD total score was 0-21. There was no issue of the ceiling or floor effects as only 12.5% of participants reported the minimum score of 0, and none of the participants reported the maximum score of 21. The internal consistency score of the GAD-7 was found to be good (Cronbach's alpha = 0.83). The internal homogeneity between item scores was 0.22-0.57 as indicated by the "Spearman correlation coefficient (r)". The total scores and individual item scores of the GAD-7 were statistically associated with the PSS total score (correlation coefficient r = 0.21-0.37), and scores of the 8th and 13th item of the SHI (correlation coefficient r = 0.17-0.26, and 0.21-0.40, respectively). The exploratory factor and confirmatory factor loadings of the GAD-7 items were ranged from 0.60 to 0.81 and 0.51 to 0.80, respectively. Conclusion: This study supported the use of the GAD-7 to assess the anxiety level among Saudi university students.