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

Povzetek

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 cor-
relation 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.