A confirmatory factor analysis of the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale

A sample of 2,754 male and female undergraduate students from 9 different Arab countries responded to the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale (KUAS: Abdel-Khalek, 2000). This study extends the exploratory factor analyses performed in previous studies, using confirmatory factor analysis to test four models derived from Kuwaiti, Saudi, German and American samples. Four measures were used to assess the goodness of fit as follows: the Comparative Fit Index (Hu & Bentler, 1999), the Root Mean Square Errors of Approximation (Gao et al., 2004), the Normed Fit Index, and the Goodness of Fit (Sanders et al., 2005). In applying these measures, it was found that the Saudi three-factor model is an optimal model. It is particularly noteworthy that the Saudi factorial pattern was based on a large sample size (N = 9,031). By and large, the present results confirmed that the best fitted model on the KUAS was the three- factor model, namely, Cognitive/affective, Tension/nervousness, and Somatic anxiety.