TY  - JOUR
IS  - 5
PB  - Mary Ann Liebert
A1  - McElroy, E
A1  - Kearney, M
A1  - Touhey, J
A1  - Evans, J
A1  - Cooke, Y
A1  - Shevlin, M
Y1  - 2019/05/17/
N2  - Cyberchondria is defined as an increase in anxiety about one?s health status as a result of excessive online
searches. McElroy and Shevlin (2014) developed the first multidimensional, self-report measure of this construct?the Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS). The CSS consists of 33 items which can be summed to form a
total score, and/or 5 subscale scores. The aim of the present study was to develop a short-form version of the
CSS, removing the ??Mistrust?? subscale. Participants were undergraduate students from two UK universities
(N = 661, 73% female, Mage = 22.19 years, SD = 5.88). Students completed the CSS, Short Health Anxiety
Inventory (SHAI) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD-7). Twelve items were chosen for
retention in the short form based on an exploratory factor analysis. These items corresponded to the four factors
previously identified in the 33-item scale (minus the ??Mistrust?? subscale). Confirmatory factor analysis was
used to validate the structure of the CSS-12. Confirmatory bifactor modeling indicated that the majority of item
covariance was accounted for by a general cyberchondria factor. Construct validity was assessed by examining
associations with the SHAI and GAD-7, with stronger correlations observed between the CSS-12 and the SHAI
(compared with the GAD-7). The CS
VL  - 22
ID  - discovery10072919
SN  - 1094-9313
N1  - This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher?s terms and conditions.
JF  - Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
EP  - 335
AV  - public
UR  - https://www.liebertpub.com/loi/cyber
SP  - 330
TI  - The CSS-12: Development and validation of a short-form version of the cyberchondria severity scale
KW  - cyberchondria
KW  -  health anxiety
KW  -  self-diagnosis
KW  -  general anxiety
ER  -