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College Students (N = 214) participated in a study developing and validating a three-item measure of general worry: the Three Item Worry Index (TIWI). The TIWI had a high internal consistency and accounted for a large percentage of the systematic variance in responses. It evidenced concurrent validity through high correlations with the State- Trait Anxiety Inventory - Trait Form (STAI), Worry Domains Questionnaire (WDQ), and Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ). The TIWI was most strongly correlated with the PSWQ. Controlling for trait anxiety, the TIWI remained strongly correlated with the PSWQ, but not the WDQ, suggesting that the TIWI more adequately measures pathological than non-pathological worry.
Nearly everyone worries from time to time. However, there appear to be individual differences between individuals who worry frequently and intensely - worriers - and those who rarely worry - nonworriers. For example, compared to nonworriers, worriers tend to score higher on measures of intolerance of uncertainty (Dugas, Gosselin, & Ladouceur, 2001), depression (Starcevic, 1995), self-handicapping (Meyer, Miller, Metzger, & Borkovec, 1990), perfectionism and stress (Chang, 2000), boredom (Kelly & Markos, 2001), and a tendency to attribute sleep disturbance to worry (Kelly, 2003a). Worriers tend to score lower on measures of life satisfaction and positive affect (Chang, 2000), problem solving confidence (Dugas, Letarte, Rheaume, Freeston, & Ladouceur, 1995), sleep length (Kelly, 2002a), time management (Kelly, 2003b), and sense of humor (Kelly, 2003c).
Those interested in studying self-reported worry currently have two commonly used questionnaires to choose from: the 16-item Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ; Meyer, Miller, Metzger, & Borkovec, 1990) and the 30-item Worry Domains Questionnaire (WDQ; Tallis, Eysenck, & Mathews, 1992). Both were designed to measure worry. However, they appear to measure different forms of worry. The PSWQ was designed to measure pathological worry, defined as worry closely related with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which often serves to exaggerate an individual's problems rather than alleviate them (Davey, 1993, 1994; Kelly, 2002b; Meyer et al., 1990). The WDQ, on the other hand, was designed to measure non-pathological worry. That is, worry which is normally experienced to some degree by most individuals and consists of healthy problem solving and coping strategies (Davey, 1993, 1994; Tallis et al., 1992).
In addition to measuring apparently different forms of worry, the PSWQ and...