Abstract
BackgroundAnxiety can be classified as state anxiety and trait anxiety which present the current level of anxiety and the generalized anxiety tendencies of individuals, respectively. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory form Y (STAI-Y) is a reliable instrument used to test both the levels of state and trait anxiety across various countries. However, the optimal factor structure of STAI-Y in different populations is not consistent and is not clear in Chinese university students. In addition, the gender invariance is the premise for comparing the scores of STAI-Y between men and women which also need to be verified. Therefore, this study explored the optimal factor structure of STAI-Y and examined whether the optimal factor structure satisfied measurement invariance across gender in Chinese university students.MethodA sample of 2117 Chinese university students participated in this study including 748 men and 1369 women. The optimal factor structure was decided by singer group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM). Furthermore, the configural invariance, metric invariance, scalar invariance, and strict invariance models were administrated in multigroup CFA to detect the measurement equivalence of STAI-Y across gender in Chinese university students. The reliability of STAI-Y was tested by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and McDonald’s omega coefficients.ResultsThe optimal factor structure of STAI-Y was four-factor model and reached strict gender invariance in Chinese university students. Moreover, the STAI-Y also had adequate reliability in Chinese university students.ConclusionThis study explored the factor structure and gender invariance of STAI-Y in Chinese university students. In sum, the four-factor structure of STAI-Y obtained the best goodness-of-fit and satisfied gender invariance which deepened the understanding of STAI-Y in Chinese university students.
Highlights
Anxiety is an emotional status including nervous, apprehensive and tensed feelings (Vitasari et al, 2011), which are common in the lives of healthy people and have become clinical symptoms of anxiety disorders, depression as well as other mental illnesses (Kabacoff et al, 1997; Bui and Fava, 2017)
In order to test the levels of state anxiety and trait anxiety, Spielberger et al (1983) developed the original State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and revised it as State-Trait Anxiety Inventory form Y (STAI-Y) in 1983 which included 20 items for state anxiety and 20 items for trait anxiety (Shek, 1988)
The fit indices of anxiety-absent/present factor model were as followings: χ2 = 9119.634, df = 739, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.919, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = 0.914, and rootmean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.073; χ2 = 3431.141, df = 739, CFI = 0.926, TLI = 0.922, and RMSEA = 0.070; and χ2 = 5863.689, df = 739, CFI = 0.924, TLI = 0.920, and RMSEA = 0.071
Summary
Anxiety is an emotional status including nervous, apprehensive and tensed feelings (Vitasari et al, 2011), which are common in the lives of healthy people and have become clinical symptoms of anxiety disorders, depression as well as other mental illnesses (Kabacoff et al, 1997; Bui and Fava, 2017). The STAI-Y showed satisfactory reliability and validity in numerous countries such as Greece (Fountoulakis et al, 2006), France (Bouchard et al, 1998), Malaysia (Vitasari et al, 2011), the United States (Kabacoff et al, 1997), Portugal (Andrade et al, 2001), Lebanon (Hallit et al, 2019), Caribbean (Maynard et al, 2010), and so on. These studies included general population and psychiatric patients. This study explored the optimal factor structure of STAI-Y and examined whether the optimal factor structure satisfied measurement invariance across gender in Chinese university students
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