title: The Foreign Language Anxiety in a Medical Office Scale: developing and validating a measurement tool for Spanish-speaking individuals.
abstract: Communication research has been hindered by a lack of validated measures for Latino populations. To develop and validate a foreign language anxiety in a medical office scale (the Foreign Language Anxiety in a Medical Office Scale [FLAMOS]), the authors conducted a survey of low income, primarily Spanish-speaking Latinos (N=100). The scale factored into a unidimensional construct and showed high reliability (α=.92). The Foreign Language Anxiety in a Medical Office Scale also demonstrated convergent and divergent validity compared with other communication anxiety scales (Personal Report of Communication Apprehension-24, Communication Anxiety Inventory, and Recipient Apprehension Test), and predictive validity for acculturation measures (the Short Acculturation Scale for Hispanics). The Foreign Language Anxiety in a Medical Office Scale provides a validated measure for researchers and may help to explain Latino health care communication barriers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA. lguntzvi@purdue.edu
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Guntzviller
authors.forename: Jakob D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: Andy J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: LaShara A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Davis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety; D003144:Communication Barriers; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055815:Young Adult