Assessing metacognitive beliefs about worry: validation of German versions of the Why Worry Scale II and the Consequences of Worry Scale

Abstract

Background Metacognitive beliefs have been proposed to play a key role in initiating and maintaining worry. The Why Worry-Scale-II (WW-II) and Consequences of Worry Scale (COWS) are self-report questionnaires assessing positive and negative metacognitive beliefs. The main goal of this study was to validate German versions of these two questionnaires. Method N = 603 participants completed a questionnaire battery, including the two self-report measures of metacognitive beliefs. We conducted confirmatory factor analyses, calculated internal consistencies, and examined convergent and divergent validity. In addition, the questionnaires’ power in predicting worry, repetitive negative thinking (RNT) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms were investigated. Results The factor structure of the original versions could be replicated for both measures. Furthermore, the translated questionnaires demonstrated excellent internal consistency and evidence of convergent and divergent validity. Importantly they also possessed predictive power in explaining worry, RNT and GAD symptoms, even over and above the Metacognitions Questionnaire-30 (MCQ-30) as the current gold standard. Conclusions Overall, our findings suggest that the WW-II and COWS show solid psychometric properties and are useful in measuring metacognitive beliefs independently from the MCQ-30.

Keywords

• Metacognitions
• Metacognitive beliefs
• Worry
• Generalized anxiety disorder
• Meta-worry