Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the validity and reliability of Separation Anxiety Symptoms Inventory (SASI) that assess childhood separation anxiety retrospectively and Adult Separation Anxiety Questionnaire (ASA).
Method: The study sample included a group of 410 participants comprised of 282 adult psychiatric outpatients with anxiety and/or major depressive disorders according to DSM-IV criteria and 128 nonpsychiatric control subjects. The presence of psychiatric disorders was determined by using the M.I.N.I. (Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview). Structured Clinical Interview for Separation Anxiety Symptoms (SCI-SAS), Separation Anxiety Symptoms Inventory (SASI), Adult Separation Anxiety Questionnaire (ASA), Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS), "Sensitivity to Separations" subscale of Panic Agorapfobic Spectrum Scale (PAS-SR), Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) were also given.
Findings: The validity assessments of the instruments revealed that SASI and ASA discriminated the psychiatric patients from control subjects. Both instruments displayed high correlation with SCI-SAS and PAS-SR, a moderate correlation with ASI and PDSS. Factor structure assessments revealed the existence of 3 factor for SASI and 5 factor for ASA. Both SASI and ASA has a high level of internal consistency (Cronbach alfa coefficients are 0.89 and 0.93 respectively) and their test-retest reliability is fairly good.
Results: Turkish versions of SASI and ASA were found to be valid and reliable. Results indicate that those instruments can be used in clinical studies for surveying adult separation anxiety disorder and determining its severity.