Penn State Worry Questionnaire

PSWQ

psychologyhealthTerms not stated: check with the authors

Permission: Terms not stated: check with the authors. The developers publish no terms of use that Folio could find. Ask the authors or the publisher before using it in a study, and cite the original publication.

A 16-item self-report measure of trait worry, the general tendency to worry. It was developed and validated with college and clinical samples, including people diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder.

Items

Response format

5-point scale

Version

1.0

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Trait worry was measured with the 16-item Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ; Meyer et al., 1990), rated on a 5-point scale with five reverse-scored items and a total score range of 16-80.

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Reliability & validation

Notes

Five items are reverse-scored, and total scores range from 16 to 80. Knight et al. (2008) summarize the original studies as showing alpha > .90 and retest r > .74 over two to four weeks; a single original test-retest coefficient was not verified.

Validation population

Samples in the original development studies (Meyer et al., 1990), as summarized by Pallesen et al. (2006)

Cronbach's α

0.91–0.95

Known limitations

The PSWQ measures the general tendency to worry rather than what people worry about. Factor-analytic studies have found that its five reverse-scored items can form a separate method factor.

Original citation

Meyer, T. J., Miller, M. L., Metzger, R. L., & Borkovec, T. D. (1990). Development and validation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 28(6), 487-495.

https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(90)90135-6

Questions researchers ask

What does the PSWQ measure?

How many items does the PSWQ have?

The Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) has 16 items.

Is the PSWQ free to use?

Folio could not find published terms of use for the PSWQ. Ask the authors or the publisher before using it in a study, and cite the original publication.

Is the PSWQ reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.91–0.95. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the PSWQ, and how do I cite it?

Meyer, T. J., Miller, M. L., Metzger, R. L., & Borkovec, T. D. (1990). Development and validation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 28(6), 487-495. https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(90)90135-6

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Library entry verified November 2026. Metadata is provided for reference. Questionnaires are built in Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing, and can be taken to Qualtrics, Google Forms or Microsoft Forms, with their CSV responses brought back for scoring.