Accuracy of fear inventories and self-efficacy scales in predicting agoraphobic behavior

Abstract

Self-rating fear inventories are widely used as primary dependent measures of therapeutic change in agoraphobia, but objective behavioral evidence of their validity has been largely unavailable. In contrast, self-efficacy scales are rarely used in agoraphobia research despite evidence that they correlate highly with agoraphobic behavior. In the present study, 37 agoraphobics completed the Marks and Mathews Fear Questionnaire, the Mobility Inventory for Agoraphobia, a set of agoraphobia-related self-efficacy scales, and a set of agoraphobia-related behavioral avoidance tests in the natural community environment. The Fear Questionnaire and Mobility Inventory items proved to be only modestly predictive of agoraphobic dysfunction, whereas the self-efficacy scales were highly predictive of agoraphobic dys-function. Although self-efficacy scales are not intended to be substitute measures of behavior, the findings indicate that they estimate agoraphobia much more accurately than do the standard fear inventories.