Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Abstract
Background & Objectives: Research indicates that generalized anxiety disorder stands out as one of the main psychological problems around the world. Following the industrialization of today's societies and the tendency of humans to live by machines, their lifestyles have noticeably changed. Among the most important consequences of these rapid developments is their impact on human health. One of these consequences is anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder, the consequences of which have become one of the problems of modern humans. In psychotherapy, various treatment methods have been used for this disorder; each has its advantages and limitations. One of these treatments belongs to Dugas et al. (2019). In their therapeutic model, they defined the state of intolerance of uncertainty, the factors preceding it, and the results resulting from it in the context of a close relationship between the state of uncertainty, the person's beliefs or his interpretation of uncertainty and anxiety symptoms. In this Dugas model, the safety behaviors that anxiety patients perform to prevent the experience of anxiety have also been addressed, and a separate questionnaire has been used for it. The 10-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Safety Behavior questionnaire was developed by Marcotte-Beaumier, Hebert, and Dugas (2020) to measure safety behaviors associated with generalized anxiety disorder. Safety behaviors include reassurance, over-preparation, avoiding uncertain situations, and refusing to delegate tasks to others. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the safety behavior questionnaire of people with generalized anxiety disorder in Iranian society.
Methods: The current research purpose was tool development of descriptive-analytical type. In this study, the statistical population consisted of all people with generalized anxiety disorder who were referred to psychology clinics in Tehran City, Iran, who were between 20-45 years old with at least a diploma education. Finally, 101 people were selected using the available sampling method and completed the relevant questionnaires. To check the validity of the structure, the confirmatory factor analysis was used. To check the convergent validity, the Pearson correlation coefficient was used between the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Safety Behavior questionnaire (short form) (Marcotte-Beaumier, Hebert, and Dagas, 2020) and the Beck's Anxiety questionnaire (Beck et al., 1990). Also, to investigate the divergent validity, the Pearson correlation coefficient was used between the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Safety Behavior Questionnaire (short form) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (a group of experts of the World Health Organization, 1996). To measure the reliability of the tool, 40 of the 101 initial participants (who were randomly selected) completed the safety behavior questionnaire again after four weeks. The Cronbach alpha and retest coefficient (for four weeks) were used to measure the reliability of the tool. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was used to measure internal consistency. The significance level of the tests was equal to 0.01.
Results: The results showed that this questionnaire had a Cronbach alpha value of 0.81, and its reliability coefficient was 0.83 based on the test-retest, which is strong and significant at the significance level of 0.01. Checking the validity of the questionnaire also showed a significant (p<0.001) correlation coefficient of 0.48 between the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Safety Behavior Questionnaire (SBQ-GAD) and the Beck Anxiety questionnaire, indicating the appropriate convergent validity of this questionnaire. A strong and significant negative relationship exists between the SBQ-GAD questionnaire and the World Health Organization quality of life questionnaire and its dimensions (p<0.001). A way that the correlation coefficient obtained between the SBQ-GAD questionnaire with physical health is -0.54, mental health -0.64, social relations -0.53, environmental health -0.52, the overall quality of life -0.44, and with the score of total quality of life is -0.66, representing an appropriate divergent validity of this questionnaire. Also, the factor analysis of the SBQ-GAD questionnaire shows the model's acceptable and proper fit and compatibility with the collected data.
Conclusion: In general, it can be said that the SBQ-GAD questionnaire has good validity and reliability in Iranian samples and can be used for research and treatment purposes.