AbstractsWomens Studies

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in the United States, and as a result, has become a significant public health problem for women in this country. Among ethnic minorities in the United States, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death(s) in Hispanic-American women. Cancer worry, a woman's level of worry about her risk of getting breast cancer, has been implicated as a determinant of preventive screening and psychological adjustment for women at breast cancer risk. The Cancer Worry Scale (CWS) is a four-item self-report questionnaire developed for use in men and women to measure frequency of worry about cancer risk and the impact of cancer worry on daily activities. The aim of the research study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the CWS in Hispanic-American women to determine its utility in this population. Multiple group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was utilized to examine the equivalence of the CWS in Hispanic-American women across the two language preference sub-groups. Multiple group CFA did not provide support for a one-factor structure model in the overall group, nor did it provide support for a one-factor structure model in the English or Spanish language preference sub-groups. Due to the lack of model fit, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted as a follow-up to explore the dimensionality of the four items of the CWS for the overall group and the English and the Spanish language preference subgroups. EFA suggested a one-factor structure/solution for worry in which the four items loaded well for the solution in the overall group and in each language preference sub-group. Convergent and discriminant validity were assessed between the CWS and each of the following measures: CWC, PHQ-9, and the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Status. There was a positive correlation between the CWS and the CWC, which was statistically significant. In this same assessment, there was a positive correlation between the CWS and the PHQ-9, which was also statistically significant. Lastly, there were no significant correlations between the CWS and the two ladders of the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status. Advisors/Committee Members: Malcarne, Vanessa, Roesch, Scott, Arredondo, Elva M.