Multidimensional assessment of anxiety through the State-Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety (STICSA): From dimensionality to response prediction across emotional contexts

Filipa Barros; Cláudia Figueiredo; Susana Brás; João M Carvalho; Sandra C Soares

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0262960

Multidimensional assessment of anxiety through the State-Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety (STICSA): From dimensionality to response prediction across emotional contexts

PLoS One. 2022 Jan 25;17(1):e0262960. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262960. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Filipa Barros^{1

2}, Cláudia Figueiredo^{3

4}, Susana Brás^{5

6}, João M Carvalho^{5

6}, Sandra C Soares^{1

7}

Affiliations

¹ William James Center for Research (WJCR), Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.
² Center for Health Technology and Services Research (CINTESIS), Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.
³ Centre for Mechanical Technology and Automation (TEMA), University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.
⁴ Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies (GOVCOPP), University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.
⁵ Department of Electronics, Telecommunication and Informatics (DETI), University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.
⁶ Institute of Electronics and Informatics Engineering (IEETA), University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.
⁷ Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Psychology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

Abstract

The assessment of mal-adaptive anxiety is crucial, considering the associated personal, economic, and societal burden. The State-Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety (STICSA) is a self-report instrument developed to provide multidimensional anxiety assessment in four dimensions: trait-cognitive, trait-somatic, state-cognitive and state-somatic. This research aimed to extend STICSA's psychometric studies through the assessment of its dimensionality, reliability, measurement invariance and nomological validity in the Portuguese population. Additionally, the predictive validity of STICSA-Trait was also evaluated, through the analysis of the relationship between self-reported trait anxiety and both the subjective and the psychophysiological response across distinct emotional situations. Similarly to previous studies, results supported both a four-factor and two separated bi-factor structures. Measurement invariance across sex groups was also supported, and good nomological validity was observed. Moreover, STICSA trait-cognitive dimension was associated with differences in self-reported arousal between groups of high/low anxiety, whereas STICSA trait-somatic dimension was related to differences in both the subjective and psychophysiological response. Together, these results support STICSA as a useful instrument for a broader anxiety assessment, crucial for an informed diagnosis and practice.

Publication types

Clinical Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Anxiety Disorders* / diagnosis
Anxiety Disorders* / physiopathology
Anxiety Disorders* / psychology
Cognition*
Emotions*
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Portugal
Psychometrics

Grants and funding

This research was supported by National Funds through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), within the William James Center for Research (UIDB/04810/2020); the CINTESIS R&D Unit (UID/IC/4255/2020); the IEETA/UA R&D unit (UIDB/00127/2020); the TEMA R&D Unit (TEMA/DEM/UA); a Doctoral Grant with the ref. SFRH/BD/118244/2016, granted to Filipa Barros; and a Doctoral grant with the ref. SFRH/BD/136815/2018, granted to João M. Carvalho. Also, this work was funded by national funds, European Regional Development Fund, FSE through COMPETE2020, through FCT, in the scope of the framework contract foreseen in the numbers 4, 5 and 6 of the article 23, of the Decree-Law 57/2016, of August 29, changed by Law 57/2017, of July 19. It was also developed under the support of the Research Program “CeNTER - Community-led Territorial Innovation” (CEN-TRO-01-0145-FEDER-000002), funded by Programa Operacional Regional do Centro (CENTRO 2020), through the ERDF and PT2020. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.