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Journal of Clinical and

Basic Psychosomatics

BRIEF REPORT
Psychometric analysis of the mass shootings

worry inventory

Sherman A. Lee* and Jeffrey A. Gibbons
Department of Psychology, Christopher Newport University, Newport News, Virginia, United States
of America

Abstract
Mass shootings are a growing public health concern. However, relatively little
attention has been paid to the debilitating forms of anxiety that arise from this
modern form of public gun violence. Therefore, this study examined the properties
of the mass shootings worry inventory (MSWI) using data from 757 adults. The
results suggest that this newly developed instrument demonstrates solid reliability,
convergent validity, and known-group validity. These findings encourage clinicians
and researchers to use the MSWI to aid their efforts in confronting this health crisis.

Keywords: Mass shootings; Gun violence; Dysfunctional worry; Functional impairment;
Drug and alcohol coping; Post-traumatic stress

1. Introduction

*Corresponding authors: A mass shooting is a public gun violence event that involves the deaths of multiple
Sherman A. Lee victims. Shockingly, hundreds of mass shootings occur every year in the United
(sherman.lee@cnu.edu) States (U.S.), and they not only appear to be increasing in frequency, but they are also
[3]
[1]
[2]
Citation: Lee SA, Gibbons JA, becoming deadlier . Like other traumatic events, such as terrorist attacks , crime , and
2023, Psychometric analysis of the deadly virus outbreaks , that are linked to mental health problems and impairments,
[4]
mass shootings worry inventory. [5]
Journal of Clinical and Basic mass shootings also seem to elicit negative psychological effects on the public . For
Psychosomatics, 1(1): 0546. example, a national poll reported that 79% of adults in the U.S. experience stress about
https://doi.org/10.36922/jcbp.0546 mass shootings, and nearly 33% avoid certain places or events because of the relevant
Received: April 17, 2023 concerns . The statistics are not surprising given that mass shootings have occurred in
[6]
Accepted: June 26, 2023 everyday establishments, such as stores, schools, offices, and even places of worship. As
such, there appear to be no “safe places” to go. Moreover, the constant and dramatic news
Published Online: July 10, 2023 reports and social media coverage of these events fuel people’s fears and anxieties over
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s). this public form of gun violence.
This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of the Despite these alarming statistics, little attention has been given to “dysfunctional”
Creative Commons Attribution worry in the context of mass shootings, which we define as worry that leads to
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, functional impairments. To address this issue, Lee and Gibbons (unpublished)
provided the original work is recently developed the mass shootings worry inventory (MSWI) as a tool to aid clinical
properly cited. research and practice in addressing this growing public health crisis. Initial research
Publisher’s Note: AccScience on the development of the MSWI, using data from 384 adults, suggests that this
Publishing remains neutral with ultra-brief tool is reliable (i.e., reliability coefficients of 0.67), valid (i.e., MSWI scores
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional correlate with mass shooting-related impairment, anger, and planning), and accurate
affiliations. (i.e., sensitivity and specificity values >70%). However, research has not provided an

Volume 1 Issue 1 (2023) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcbp.0546