Distinguishing depression and anxiety in self-report: evidence from confirmatory factor analysis on nonclinical and clinical samples.

Psychologists believe that anxiety and depression self-report scales tap distinct constructs. This assumption was tested by using confirmatory factor analysis on mood data from nonclinical samples (K. S. Dobson, 1985a; I. H. Gotlib, 1984; J. Tanaka-Matsumi & V.A. Kameoka, 1986) and a clinical sample (J. Mendels, N. Weinstein, & C. Cochrane, 1972). These analyses provide evidence that anxiety and depression self-report scales do not measure discriminant mood constructs and may therefore be better thought of as measures of general negative mood rather than as measures of anxiety and depression per se.