Psychometric properties of the adolescents’ interpretation and belief questionnaire (AIBQ) for measuring interpretation Bias in Chinese adolescents

Abstract

The cognitive model of social anxiety disorder hypothesized that socially anxious individuals tend to negatively interpret ambiguous scenarios, which was termed an Interpretation bias (IB). The Adolescents’ Interpretation Bias Questionnaire (AIBQ) is a widely used self-report instrument to measure IB towards social situations for adolescents. The main objective of the current study was to culturally revise AIBQ in Chinese adolescents. In total, 960 adolescents participated, and four weeks later, 185 of them were re-measured with Chinese version of AIBQ (C-AIBQ). We tested construct validity, examined internal consistency and test-retest reliability, and assessed convergent and divergent validity of the C-AIBQ subscales. Overall, C-AIBQ variables showed satisfactory construct validity, internal consistency, test-retest reliability and convergent and discriminant validity, in particular the social negative interpretation subscale. Our results indicate that this instrument is adequate to measure interpretation bias in Chinese adolescents.