Kenny Music Performance Anxiety Inventory (KMPAI): Transcultural Adaptation for Brazil and Study of Internal Consistency

Ana Elisa Medeiros Barbar

doi:10.4172/2167-1044.1000167

Abstract

Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) is defined as an anxious condition, when directly related to solo or group musical performance, and for any instrument, singing included. The assessment of MPA is a challenge to researchers and clinical professionals involved with this disorder. Many instruments are available to assess MPA, but mostly of these instruments are available only in English. Objective: to report the process of cross-cultural validation of the Kenny Music Performance Anxiety Inventory (KMPAI) for Brazil and to describe the study of internal consistency in a Brazilian musicians sample (230 amateur and professional musicians; 58.3% females; 39.17 years mean age). Methods/ Results: the translation was carried out through a rigorous process of translation, backtranslation and face validity. The internal consistency was evaluated with the Cronbach’s alpha, and was considered appropriate with a 0.82 value. No item from the scale would alter the value of alpha, which supports the internal consistency of the scale. The highest item correlation was among items 11 and 23 (r=0.50, p<0.001). Conclusion: considering that the MPA is a very prevalent disorder among musicians, with significant impairment in social and work life, we hope that the KMPAI will contribute to a better knowledge in screening of MPA in Brazil, making it easier for musicians to be properly treated with specific and effective interventions.

Highlights

Performance Anxiety Disorders is a group of disorders that affects subjects in a variety of public situations, such as public speaking, sport-related, artistic activities or even mathematical calculation and usually defined as an experience of persistent and stressful apprehension related to a performance in public [1,2,3]
Musical Performance Anxiety (MPA) is recognized as a subtype of the Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), occurring in a continuous severity scale that range from a normal stress factor – that happens with no impairment to the musician – to severe and debilitating symptom, similar to panic attack [4,8,9,10,11]
The process of translating the Kenny Music Performance Anxiety Inventory (KMPAI) to brazilian portuguese followed rigorous criteria of translation and backtranslation, and the pilot-study made it possible to confirm the face validity of the brazilian version of the scale, which did not suffered any modifications when compared to the original version [21]

Summary

Introduction

Performance Anxiety Disorders is a group of disorders that affects subjects in a variety of public situations, such as public speaking, sport-related, artistic activities or even mathematical calculation and usually defined as an experience of persistent and stressful apprehension related to a performance in public [1,2,3]. The Musical Performance Anxiety (MPA) is defined by this anxious condition, when directly related to solo or group musical performance, and for any instrument, besides singing. MPA is recognized as a subtype of the Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), occurring in a continuous severity scale that range from a normal stress factor – that happens with no impairment to the musician – to severe and debilitating symptom, similar to panic attack [4,8,9,10,11]. The prevalence of MPA in the population is still inaccurate and differs within studies, with rates that range from 12 to 59% [6,12,13]. In Brazil, a study with amateur and professional musicians found a MPA prevalence of 24% [14,15]. One possibility is differences in MPA measurements and definitions, differences between samples, response samples and valorization of one or another MPA component [5,6,16]

Objectives

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Results

Conclusion