Factorial and concurrent validity of two anxiety measures and anxiety responses among vision-impaired people

Factorial and concurrent validity of two anxiety measures and anxiety responses among vision-impaired people

The present research tested the factorial and concurrent validity of a revised version of the Competitive
State Anxiety Inventory -2 (CSAI-2), a commonly-used measure of anxiety in competitive domains since
its development by Martens, Vealey and Burton in 1990. A revised 17-item version of the CSAI-2, known
as the CSAI-2R, was created by Cox, Martens and Russell in 2003, which has shown superior
psychometric characteristics and is now favoured over the original by researchers. Another measure, the
Emotion and Mood Components of Anxiety Questionnaire (EMCA-Q), developed by Beedie, Lane and
Terry in 2005, was used as the concurrent measure. Using a retrospective recall approach, and with the
assistance of specialist Job Access With Speech (JAWS) software, 152 adult vision-impaired participants
completed an on-line questionnaire that included a range of demographic information plus the CSAI-
2/CSAI-2R and EMCA-Q. The usual context of the measures, competitive sport, was re-contextualised to
a personally-important event in which the participants had recently ―performed.‖ Principal components
analysis with promax rotation showed that the CSAI-2R provided a better fit to the data than the original
CSAI-2, explaining 63% of the variance compared to 59%, but complex solutions were found for both
measures including several cross-loading items. The factorial validity of the EMCA-Q was supported. The
concurrent validity of the CSAI-2R and EMCA-Q was supported via inter-correlations between subscale
scores that were exactly in line with theoretical predictions. Group comparisons using single-factor
MANOVAs showed no significant differences in anxiety responses among the vision impaired population
by gender, age and level of vision impairment. Those with a previously diagnosed anxiety disorder
reported higher anxiety scores than those without such a diagnosis. Finally, participants who resided in
Australia reported higher level of anxiety scores than those residing outside Australia. The EMCA-Q
appears to be a valid measure to use for the vision-impaired people in terms of its factor structure,
internal consistency and variance explained, whereas further validation work would be required before the
CSAI-2R could be considered validated for use with vision-impaired populations.

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