In the master's thesis, we validated the Slovenian translation of the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (MASQ), which was created on the basis of Clark and Watson's tripartite model of anxiety and depression. According to this model, symptoms of mood disorders can be divided into 3 groups: 1) non-specific symptoms of general distress (as measured by MASQ-GD scale), which are characteristics of both anxiety and depression, 2) physiological arousal (MASQ-AA scale), which is specific to anxiety, and 3) anhedonia or low positive affect (MASQ-AD scale), which is specific to depression. Patients of the University Psychiatric Clinic Ljubljana with mild, moderate or severe symptoms of depression or anxiety were included in the sample. In addition to the MASQ, participants completed the Generalized Anxiety Scale (GAD-7) and a depression scale, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) in the Pavlovia online experiment environment. Psychometric analysis was performed using R software. The average scores on the MASQ-GD and MASQ-AD scales and the classical sum-score of the MASQ questionnaire were medium, while the average score on the MASQ-AA scale was low. The distribution of scores was not normal for any of the scales and the classical sum-score of the MASQ questionnaire as well. Correlations between scores on the MASQ questionnaire were consistent with the assumptions of the tripartite model. The correlation between achievements on the MASQ-GD and MASQ-AA scales was high and the correlation between MASQ-GD and MASQ-AD scales was high. The correlation between achievements on the MASQ-AA and MASQ-AD scales were moderate. Internal consistency coefficients λ2 showed excellent reliability of the scales MASQ-GD and MASQ-AA, good reliability of the scale MASQ-AD and excellent composite reliability of the MASQ77. Factor analysis confirmed an adequate fit of the model to the data. Correlations between achievements on the MASQ, GAD-7 and PHQ-9 questionnaires were expectedly high and the factor analysis confirmed that the best among 3 alternative structural models was the model “general distress”, which assumed that the GAD-7 and PHQ-9 measure the same latent construct as the MASQ-GD scale. Based on the psychometric analysis performed, we can conclude that the Slovenian translation of the MASQ questionnaire has adequate psychometric characteristics and is suitable for use in the Slovenian clinical population.
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