Factor Structure and Reliability of the Anxiety Sensitivity Profile in a Turkish Sample1
Abstract
Summary: Anxiety sensitivity is an individual difference variable defined as the fear of fear or the fear of anxiety, arising from the belief that the experience of anxiety symptoms leads to illness or additional anxiety. The Anxiety Sensitivity Profile (ASP) is a 60 item self-report measurement, and each item is assessed on a 7-point scale. The purpose of this study is to determine the factor structure and reliability of the Turkish version of the ASP. To address this purpose, first the scale was translated into Turkish, and then it was administered to 434 university students. Principal components factor analysis with promax rotation revealed four factors in which all items had a factor loading of 0.30 or more. The factors were as follows: (1) fear of respiratory symptoms, (2) fear of cognitive dyscontrol, (3) fear of cardiac symptoms, and (4) fear of gastrointestinal symptoms. The internal consistency of these four factors was 0.97, 0.93, 0.91, and 0.86, respectively. The overall scale also had a high degree of internal consistency, with an α coefficient of 0.98. Item-total analysis revealed that the internal consistency of all items was satisfactory (rs 0.30-0.77). Data provided evidence that the Turkish version of the ASP had a multidimensional construct with four lower order factors loaded on a higher order factor.
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