Title:
Psychometric properties of the GAD-Q-IV in postpartum mothers
Author:
Mark E. Pierson
Thesis Advisor:
Jason Prenoveau
Committee Member:
Beth A. Kotchick
Committee Member:
Rachel Grover
Committee Member:
James Miracky
Committee Member:
Matthew Kirkhart
Degree Granting Institution:
Loyola University Maryland--College of Arts and Sciences
Place:
Baltimore (Md.)
Publisher:
Loyola University Maryland
Date Created:
2014
Type of Resource:
text
Genre:
thesis
Language:
eng
Format:
application/pdf
Physical Form:
electronic
Digital Source:
born digital
Abstract:
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a mental disorder with a main feature of excessive, impairing worry. GAD symptoms are common for women during the postpartum period (Phillips, Sharpe, Matthey, and Charles, 2009) and GAD prevalence rates have been reported as higher in postpartum mothers than in the general population (Wenzel, Haugen, Jackson, and Brendle, 2005). If GAD is screened and diagnosed early in motherhood, perhaps some of the chronic and deleterious effects of GAD (Boschen, 2011) and associated negative childhood outcomes (Glasheen et al., 2010) might be avoided. Currently, no evidence exists to show that responses from a measure can reliably and validly be used to screen for the possible presence of diagnosable GAD for postpartum women (Meades and Ayers, 2011). The purpose of this investigation is to gather psychometric information for the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire-IV (GAD-Q-IV; Newman et al., 2002) with a sample of 296 postpartum mothers. Results from our study provided sufficient evidence to justify a one-factor structure for GAD-Q-IV responses from postpartum women, which was previously unknown. We found acceptable test-retest reliability as well as structural and metric invariance for GAD-Q-IV responses over a 15-week time period. Findings from the present study also provided evidence of divergent validity of the participants' responses between the constructs of GAD and MDD symptoms. Lastly, a range of GAD-Q-IV cut-off scores was determined that can be applied to screen for the likely presence or absence of GAD for postpartum women. The evidence presented in this study suggests that the GAD-Q-IV could be a viable wide-scale screening measure used to identify the likely presence of GAD for postpartum women so that further evaluations and treatments can be recommended.
Subject:
Electronic dissertations
Degree:
Master of Science
Level:
Master
Discipline:
Clinical Psychology
Restrictions on Access:
Author has given permission to make this work available online.
Use and Reproduction:
The authors of theses and dissertations are the copyright owners. Loyola Notre Dame Library has their permission to store and provide access to these works. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Permission is required to use materials for which Loyola Notre Dame Library, Loyola University Maryland, or Notre Dame of Maryland University hold copyright. In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of gift of purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Identifier:
PiersonME-14
