TY - JOUR TI - Psychometric properties of the GAD-Q-IV and DERS in older community-dwelling GAD patients and nonanxious controls DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3K35TC5 PY - 2010 AB - Recent research suggests that generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) in late life is common (Flint, 2005) and is associated with severe consequences, such as decreased life satisfaction and increased risk of physical disability (De Beurs et al., 1999). Yet, our understanding of this disorder in late life, including knowledge of efficient assessment tools, lags behind our growing knowledge of GAD in younger adults. The current study investigated the psychometric properties of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire for DSM-IV (GAD-Q-IV; Newman et al., 2002) and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz & Roemer, 2004) in a community-dwelling, older adult population. Thirty-seven adults diagnosed with GAD and 37 controls (all age 60 or older) completed the GAD-Q-IV, DERS, and other measures of anxiety and depression. Both measures were assessed for internal consistency reliability, construct validity (convergent and discriminant), and test-retest reliability, all of which indicated good psychometric performance. Receiver operating characteristic analyses suggested that the optimal cutoff for diagnosing GAD in this sample was 3.71, with .97 sensitivity and .92 specificity. However, including only those participants diagnosed with GAD in addition to another Axis I disorder (e.g., social phobia, dysthymia, panic disorder with or without agoraphobia; n = 18), revealed a higher optimal cutoff score (4.42; 100% sensitivity and 92% specificity). ROC analyses also revealed an optimal DERS cutoff score of 62.5, which achieved .76 sensitivity and .86 specificity. Findings from the current study support the utility of an emotion regulation deficit model of late-life GAD, and are discussed in relation to age specific characteristics of worry and GAD. KW - Psychology KW - Anxiety in old age KW - Older people--Psychology KW - Psychometrics LA - eng ER -