Abstract
Sensitivity to threat (ST) is thought to be a precursor to anxiety, a common mental health issue among youth. The BIS scale, a popular measure of ST, includes 2 negatively-phrased fear questions, and 5 positively-phrased worry questions, creating confusion in the factor structure of this scale. We investigated the latent structure of the BIS scale among: (1) university students (N = 1095) and (2) children/adolescents (N = 412). Children and adolescents also completed a modified version of the BIS, where all items were positively phrased. Importantly, the two ‘fear’ items only form a distinct factor because of their negative phrasing. Children and adolescents may misinterpret negatively-phrased questions; thus, creating a critical issue in our ability to understand the development of ST.
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