Confirming the two factor model of dispositional cancer worry.

Recently, Jensen et al. argued that dispositional cancer worry was (a) distinct from dispositional worry and (b) defined by two underlying dimensions: severity and frequency [1]. Worry severity refers to the intensity of the affect whereas worry frequency represents how often cancer-related thoughts occur. Based on exploratory factor analysis, Jensen et al. advocated an eight-item measure with four items for each hypothesized factor. However, the two-factor model (severity and frequency) still needs to be confirmed in additional studies. The goal of the current manuscript is to evaluate opposing measurement models of dispositional cancer worry (two factors vs. one factor) and to test whether the optimal measurement model is invariant (i.e. holds across studies) [2,3].