Development and validation of a 30-item short adaptation of the Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Questionnaire (MASQ) Klaas J. Wardenaar a, ⁎, Tineke van Veen a , Erik J. Giltay a , Edwin de Beurs a , Brenda W.J.H. Penninx a,b,c , Frans G. Zitman a a Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands b Department of Psychiatry, Vrije Universiteit Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands c Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Centre Groningen, The Netherlands abstract article info Article history: Received 11 July 2008 Received in revised form 23 February 2009 Accepted 4 March 2009 Keywords: Tripartite model Anxiety Depression Validity Reliability The original Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Questionnaire (MASQ) is a 90-item self-report, designed to measure the dimensions of Clark and Watson's tripartite model. We developed and validated a 30-item short adaptation of the MASQ: the MASQ-D30, which is more suitable for large-scale psychopathology research and has a clearer factor structure. The MASQ-D30 was developed through a process of item reduction and grouping of the appropriate subscales in a sample of 489 psychiatric outpatients, using a validated Dutch translation, based on the original English MASQ, as a starting point. Validation was done in two other large samples of 1461 and 2471 subjects, respectively, with an anxiety, somatoform and/ordepression diagnosis or no psychiatric diagnosis. Psychometric properties were investigated and compared between the MASQ-D30 and the full (adapted) MASQ. A three-dimensional model (negative affect, positive affect and somatic arousal) was found to represent the data well, indicating good construct validity. The scales of the MASQ-D30 showed good internal consistency (all alphas N 0.87) in patient samples. Correlations of the subscales with other instruments indicated acceptable convergent validity. Psychometric properties were similar for the MASQ-D30 and the full questionnaire. In conclusion, the MASQ-D30 is a valid instrument to assess dimensional aspects of depression and anxiety and can easily be implemented in psychopathology studies. © 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The validity of the traditional conceptual distinction between anxiety and depression has often been challenged. Anxiety and depressive moods often co-occur, and their key symptoms show substantial overlap (Mineka et al., 1998). As a result, self-report instruments that assess symptoms of anxiety and depression are often highly correlated, indicating only modest discriminant validity (Clark and Watson, 1991). With their tripartite model, Clark and Watson (1991) proposed a way to model and assess both the shared and distinct symptoms of anxiety and depression and to circumvent the problem of co-morbidity. The model is based on the assumption that mood can be dissected into two components: negative affect (NA) and positive affect (PA) (Tellegen et al., 1999). Clark and Watson (1991) added a third dimension of somatic arousal (SA). Whereas NA is characterised by aversive emotional states such as fear, anger and guilt that are associated with both anxiety and depression, PA represents positive emotional states such as feeling active, excited, delighted, enthusiastic and interested. A lack of PA is described as feeling ‘tired and sluggish’ and is associated with depressive moods (Clark and Watson, 1991). The SA dimension represents symptoms of physiolo- gical hyperarousal such as trembling, shaking, dizziness, sweating and heart racing. These symptoms appeared to better differentiate anxiety (especially panic disorder) from depression than symptoms of subjective fear (Joiner et al., 1999). The tripartite model has found broad acceptance and is supported by several studies in psychiatric patients (Joiner et al., 1996; Keogh and Reidy, 2000; Chorpita and Daleiden, 2002; Marshall et al., 2003; De Beurs et al., 2007). To measure the dimensions of the tripartite model, Watson et al. (1995a,b) developed the Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Questionnaire (MASQ). The MASQ is a 90-item self-report questionnaire that consists of five symptom scales. The Anhedonic Depression (AD) scale measures a lack of PA and the Anxious Arousal (AA) scale measures symptoms of SA. The General Distress (GD) scale measures non-specific symptoms of general distress or NA, the General Distress- Depression (GD-D) scale measures NA symptoms that are tradition- ally considered depressive and the General Distress Anxiety (GD-A) scale measures NA symptoms that are traditionally viewed as anxious. Watson et al. (1995a,b) found the MASQ scales to have acceptable psychometric properties. This was replicated later (Reidy and Keogh, Psychiatry Research 179 (2010) 101–106 ⁎ Corresponding author. Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Centre, PO Box 9300, 2300 RC, Leiden, the Netherlands. Tel.: +31 71 5265237; fax: +31 71 5266964. E-mail address: k.j.wardenaar@lumc.nl (K.J. Wardenaar). 0165-1781/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2009.03.005 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Psychiatry Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/psychres