Abstract

Introduction: The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) is an instrument designed to assess anxiety with two subscales: State-Anxiety (STAI-S), understood as a transitory state, and Trait-Anxiety (STAI-T), conceptualized as a predisposing trait to perceive a lot of situations as threatening. Objective: The aim of this study was to adapt the STAI and report its psychometric properties in adults from Santiago, Chile. Methodology: An adaptation of the scales was carried out with a panel of experts. The STAI was administered to a sample of 257 adults from Santiago. Cronbach's alpha and ordinal alpha were used to assess reliability. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to determine the factor structure of each subscale. Results: High internal consistency was found for both scales. The CFA revealed that, in STAI-E and STAI-R, the bifactor model showed the best level of fit, followed by the two-factor model. Discussion: Adequate psychometric properties of the instrument are preserved in the population. The CFA shows evidence of multidimensional aspects in each subscale. This seems to be a consequence of method effects due to the use of reverse-scored items rather than the actual assessment of two different constructs, such as presence and absence of anxiety.