The mood and anxiety symptom questionnaire across four ethnoracial groups in an undergraduate sample

Increasing awareness of cross-cultural issues in psychology has led many to question the validity and utility of instruments in nonmajority ethnic and racial groups. The Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (MASQ; Clark & Watson, 1991) is a widely used measure of anxious and depressive symptoms. However, some of the most-cited investigations into the psychometric properties of the MASQ have failed to report the demographics of their samples. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the psychometric properties of the MASQ across ethnoracial groups. Results suggest that the internal consistency and convergent and divergent validity of the MASQ are similar across ethnoracial groups. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis indicated cross-racial invariance of loadings on the General Distress and Anxious Arousal factors, although noninvariance was observed for the Anhedonic Depression. Implications for assessment and clinical research are discussed.