The Worry and Anxiety Questionnaire: An instrument to assess the generalized anxiety disorder

This study presents data about psychometric properties of the Worry and Anxiety Questionnaire, Spanish version (WAQ, Dugas, Freeston, Lachance, Provencher y Ladouceur, 1995). The WAQ is a 16-items instrument to assess the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) according to DSMIV criteria. This questionnaire is composed by two groups of items: six item referred to somatic symptoms, and a group of heterogeneous cognitive symptoms. The WAQ was administered to a sample of 503 subjects, along with a battery of another psychological measures. The factorial analysis offered a bifactorial structure, similar to those obtained in the original research. Both, the temporal stability and internal consistency coefficients reached satisfactory levels. The relationships with another psychological measures showed the following results: a positive relationships with neuroticism-anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, obsessional thoughts, thought suppressions, depression level, and dysthymia. These results support the reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity of WAQ-Spanish version.