| Abstract |
The literature on separation anxiety disorder (SAD) presented two contentious issues re-
lating to its assessment. First, studies are scarce in assessing the symptom structure of
DSM-5 SAD among the adult population. Second, the accuracy in assessing the severity
of SAD through measuring the intensity of disturbance and the frequency of occurrence
of symptoms is yet to be studied. To address these limitations, the present study aimed to:
(1) examine the latent factor structure of the newly developed separation anxiety disorder
symptom severity inventory (SADSSI); (2) evaluate the necessity of using frequency or
intensity formats through comparison of differences in the latent level; and (3) investigate
SAD latent class analysis. Utilizing 425 left-behind emerging adults (LBA), the findings
showed that a general factor with two dimensions (i.e., response formats) measuring fre-
quency and intensity symptom severity separately has excellent fit and good reliability.
Finally, the latent class analysis yielded a three-class solution best fitting to the data.
Overall, the data provided evidence for the psychometric soundness of SADSSI as an
assessment tool for separation anxiety symptoms among LBA. |
Mindanao State
University - Iligan Institute of Technology