University of Rijeka, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Doi
Abstract
Anxiety is a common reaction to the threat of nuclear war, and there is a need for a reliable and valid measure to assess it. Existing questionnaires on the specific anxiety due to the danger of nuclear war only measure some of the four clusters of anxiety symptoms (cognitive, emotional, somatic, behavioural), or they measure coping strategies or attitudes toward nuclear weapons. Therefore, the main aim was to develop a new Anxiety due to the Nuclear War Threat Scale (ANWTS) and to determine its psychometric characteristics. In a cross-sectional online study, 287 participants from a community setting (64.8% women) filled out the ANWTS, Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), the Nuclear War Anxiety Questionnaire, and the Nuclear Coping Strategies scale. Exploratory factor analysis showed a two-factor structure with Cognitive and Emotional Symptoms Subscale (11 items, ⍵ = .96) and Somatic Symptoms Subscale (6 items, ⍵ = .93). High convergent and divergent validity was demonstrated. Known-group differences validity showed that women reported higher anxiety symptoms on both subscales and total scale than men. A new 17-item ANWTS is reliable and valid in measuring cognitive, emotional, and somatic anxiety symptoms due to possible nuclear war threats.Anksioznost je uobičajena reakcija uslijed prijetnje nuklearnoga rata te postoji potreba za pouzdanom i valjanom mjerom za njezinu procjenu. Postojeći upitnici za specifičnu anksioznost uslijed prijetnje nuklearnoga rata mjere samo neke od četiriju skupina simptoma anksioznosti (kognitivne, emocionalne, somatske, bihevioralne) ili mjere strategije suočavanja i stavove prema nuklearnome oružju. U skladu s time, glavni je cilj bio razviti novi mjerni instrument za ispitivanje anksioznosti uslijed prijetnje nuklearnoga rata (ANWTS) i utvrditi njegove psihometrijske karakteristike. U krossekcijskome online istraživanju 287 sudionika iz društvene zajednice (64.8 % sudionica) ispunilo je novi Upitnik anksioznosti uslijed prijetnje nuklearnoga rata (ANWTS), Skalu depresivnosti, anksioznosti i stresa (DASS-21), Upitnik Nuclear War Anxiety te Upitnik Nuclear Coping Strategies. Eksploratornom faktorskom analizom utvrđena je dvofaktorska struktura s podljestvicom kognitivnih i emocionalnih simptoma (11 čestica, ⍵ = .96) i somatskih simptoma (6 čestica, ⍵ = .93). Utvrđene su visoka konvergentna i divergentna valjanost. Ispitivanje razlika među grupama pokazalo je da su sudionice prijavljivale više razine simptoma anksioznosti na objema podljestvicama i na ukupnoj skali od sudionika. Novi Upitnik anksioznosti uslijed prijetnje nuklearnoga rata (ANWTS) sa 17 čestica pokazao se pouzdanim i valjanim u mjerenju kognitivnih, emocionalnih i somatskih simptoma anksioznosti uslijed prijetnje nuklearnoga rata