Normative values for the Beck Anxiety Inventory, Fear Questionnaire, Penn State Worry Questionnaire and Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory

Assessment of the meaningfulness or magnitude of therapeutic change (known as clinical significance), while believed to be highly desirable, even necessary, has been hampered by a lack of normative data on many therapy outcome measures. In this study, community data are reported for four psychometrically sound measures widely used in psychotherapy outcome research: the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Fear Questionnaire, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire, and the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory. The demographic profile of the community samples closely matches the 1990 U.S. national census profile on age, race, income, and gender. Subgroup comparisons were made between Blacks and Caucasians, between the lowest income quintile and the other income groups, and between men and women. Means and standard deviations and percentile scores are provided for each measure with examples of their use in several methods for calculating clinical significance.