Further evidence for the validity of the beck anxiety inventory with psychiatric outpatients

Abstract

To provide further information about the psychometric characteristics of the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the BAI was administered to 470 outpatients with mixed psychiatric disorders along with the revised Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the SCL-90-R. The BAI's internal consistency was high (alpha = .92), and it was significantly more correlated with the SCL-90-R Anxiety subscale (r = .81) than it was with SCL-90-R Depression subscale (r = .62). However, it was also significantly correlated with the BDI (r = .61). The mean BAI scores of the 141 (30.0%) outpatients with mood disorders and the 86 (18.3%) outpatients with anxiety disorders were comparable, but higher than the mean BAI score of the 243 (51.7%) outpatients with other disorders. A principal components analysis found the previously reported subjective, neurophysiological, panic, and autonomic dimensions. The results are discussed as providing further evidence for the use of the BAI with psychiatric outpatients. © 1993.