Psychometric validation of the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (MASQ)

Abstract

Background: We validated the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (MASQ-90), self-report questionnaire that assesses depressive, anxious and mixed symptomatology, on Slovenian psychiatric patient population. Three scales measure general distress (scale MASQ-GD), physiological arousal (scale MASQ-AA), and anhedonia or low positive affect (scale MASQ-AD).

Method: Patients of the University Psychiatric Clinic Ljubljana with variously expressed depressive or anxiety symptoms (N = 303) were included in the sample. In addition to MASQ, a subsample of 200 participants completed the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GAD-7) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).

Results: The average scores on the MASQ-GD and MASQ-AD scales and the sum-score of the MASQ questionnaire were medium high, while the average score on the MASQ-AA scale was low. The correlation between scores on the MASQ-GD and MASQ-AA scales was high (r = .73) and the correlation between MASQ-GD and MASQ-AD scales was high (r = .81). The correlation between scores on the MASQ-AA and MASQ-AD scales was moderate (r = .50). Internal consistency coefficients λ₂ showed excellent reliability of the scales MASQ-GD and MASQ-AA, good reliability of the scale MASQ-AD and excellent composite reliability of the MASQ₇₇ score. Factor analysis confirmed an adequate fit of the model to the data. Correlations between scores on the MASQ, GAD-7 and PHQ-9 questionnaires were high.

Conclusion: Based on the psychometric analysis performed, we can conclude that the MASQ-90 has adequate psychometric characteristics in the Slovenian clinical population and is therefore suitable for use in clinical research.