Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2010;28(5):470-89.
doi: 10.1080/07347332.2010.498459.

Dispositional cancer worry: convergent, divergent, and predictive validity of existing scales

Jakob D Jensen  1 , Jennifer K Bernat, LaShara A Davis, Robert Yale
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Dispositional cancer worry: convergent, divergent, and predictive validity of existing scales

Jakob D Jensen et al. J Psychosoc Oncol. 2010.

Abstract

Past research has suggested that dispositional cancer worry may be a key predictor of health behavior. The current study examined seven measures of dispositional cancer worry to see if they were significantly related (convergent validity), significantly different from similar but distinct traits (divergent validity), and capable of predicting cancer-relevant outcomes (predictive validity). Four hundred and eighty nine undergraduate students completed a survey measuring dispositional worry, dispositional cancer worry, and perceived cancer risk. Factor analysis identified four underlying dimensions that explained 67.3% of the variance in dispositional cancer worry: severity (42.8%), frequency (12.3%), psychological reactance (6.9%), and worry impact (5.3%). Four existing measures of dispositional cancer worry were found to represent each of these dimensions. In general, dispositional cancer worry measures were highly correlated with one another and only moderately correlated with measures of dispositional worry, supporting strong convergent and divergent validity. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that dispositional cancer worry measures predicted significant variance in cancer-relevant outcomes above and beyond dispositional worry. The results of the current study support the notion that dispositional cancer worry and dispositional worry are distinct constructs. Furthermore, two dimensions of dispositional cancer worry (severity and frequency) seemed to have the strongest convergent, divergent, and predictive validity.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Andersen MR, Drescher CW, Zheng YY, Bowen DJ, Wilson S. Changes in cancer worry associated with participation in ovarian cancer screening. Psycho-Oncology. 2007;16:814–820. - PubMed
    1. Arnold MR, DeJong W. Skin self-examination practices in a convenience simple of U.S. university students. Preventive Medicine. 2005;40:268–273. - PubMed
    1. Borkovec TD, Robinson E, Pruzinsky T, Dupree JA. Preliminary exploration of worry: Some characteristics and processes. Behaviour Research and Therapy. 1983;21:9–16. - PubMed
    1. Brain K, Norman P, Gray J, Rogers C, Mansel R, Harper P. A randomized trial of specialist genetic assessment: Psychological impact on women at different levels of familial breast cancer risk. British Journal of Cancer. 2002;86:233–238. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Champion VL, Skinner CS. A breast cancer fear scale: Psychometric development. Journal of Health Psychology. 2004;9:753–762. - PubMed

Publication types