Beck anxiety inventory symptoms in Arab college students

Abstract EN

Objectives : The purpose of this study were to translate the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) into Arabic and administer the translated version to a group of university students in the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE student responses were compared with those previously obtained from Lebanese and Canadian students.

Method : The Arabic BAI was administered to 240 students at the UAE University.

Results : The internal reliability of the Arabic version of the BAI was found to be similar to that of the English version reported in the United States.

The results extended our earlier observations in that the UAE students, like their Lebanese counterparts, scored significantly higher than Canadian students on the BAI.

The higher scores of females than males on the Arabic BAI confirmed the previous study based on the English version.

With the exception of the panic subscale, the UAE students were generally similar to the Lebanese students in their responses to the neurophysiological , subjective and autonomic subscales of the BAI.

There were some significant symptoms differences within the subscales between the UAE and Lebanese students but the reliability of these item differences remains to be determined.

Conclusion : The study found additional evidence for high levels of cognitive and somatic symptoms of anxiety in Arab students and indicated the need for the further study of the origins of anxiety in these individuals.