Development and validation of a short-form version of the Brazilian state-trait anxiety inventory

• Published in: Psicologia, reflexão e crítica Vol. 24; no. 3; pp. 485 - 494
• Main Authors: Fioravanti-Bastos, Ana Carolina Monnerat, Cheniaux, Elie, Landeira-Fernandez, J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Portuguese
• Published: Porto Alegre Springer Nature B.V 01.01.2011; Curso de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
• Subjects: PHYSICS, MULTIDISCIPLINARY; Escalas de Forma Simplificada; Short-form Scales; Ansiedade Traço-estado; State-trait Anxiety; Avaliação de Ansiedade; Anxiety Assessment
• ISSN: 0102-7972; 1678-7153; 1678-7153
• DOI: 10.1590/S0102-79722011000300009

The Brazilian State-Trait Anxiety Inventory has been widely used to measure state (STAI-S) and trait (STAI-T) components of anxiety. The present work developed and evaluated a short version of the STAI-S and STAI-T in a large sample of Brazilian subjects. The first study selected short-form scales. The second one employed factor analyses to investigate whether each of the two short-form scales presented a well-defined and balanced structure with both anxiety-present and anxiety-absent factors. Results indicated that the STAI-S and STAI-T could be reduced to six items (STAI-S-6 and STAI-T-6, respectively) without sacrificing their psychometric properties. The findings suggest that STAI-S-6 and STAI-T-6 may be employed in situations where time restraints make the use of full-length forms unfeasible.