Psychometric properties of Persian version of the Brief Measure of Worry Severity (BMWS) scale in students

Aim and The aim of the present study was to investigating the psychometric properties of brief measure of worry severity in students.Methods and Materials: This descriptive-survey research involved 4 groups, the first group consisted 350 students (165 males and 185 females) that were selected randomly among Hamadan Islamic Azad University, Other three group comprised, patients with anxiety disorder (n=43), mood disorder (n=39) and patients with other disorders of the DSM-IV I axis (n=55) that were selected via accessible sampling method and answered to BMWS, metacognition questionnaire (MCQ), Penn State worry questionnaire (PSWQ) and general anxiety disorder scales (GADS). Data were analyzed by exploratory and Confirmatory factor analysis using SPSS.16 and AMOS. Cronbach's Alpha and test- retest Coefficients were 0.92 and 0.82 respectively. The result of independent t test showed that BMWS mean scores of students significantly were lower than other three groups, also the scores of patients with anxiety disorder was higher than other two group significantly(p<0.001). The results of exploratory factor analysis showed that the 8 item BMWS is saturated with 1 factor that explain 67.03 of the scale’s variance. First order confirmatory factor analysis indicated that 1 mentioned factor was well fitted with the data (AGFI=0.95, RMSEA= 0.03, GFI=0.96). The BMWS is a valid and reliable instrument for assessment of the worry.