Beck Anxiety Inventory

BAI

psychologyhealth sciencesLicensed — permission required

A 21-item self-report measure of the severity of anxiety symptoms over the past week, designed to discriminate anxiety from depression.

Items

Response format

4-point severity scale (0-3)

Version

1.0

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Anxiety was measured with the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; Beck et al., 1988), a 21-item self-report scale with high internal consistency (α ≈ .92); totals of 8, 16, and 26 mark mild, moderate, and severe anxiety.

Citing this in a methods section? This scale spans more than one discipline, so the style depends on where you publish — see the APA 7 or Vancouver guides, or compare all six citation styles.

Reliability & validation

Validation population

Psychiatric outpatients (Beck et al., 1988)

Test–retest

0.75

Cronbach's α

0.92

Known limitations

Licensed/proprietary (permission and purchase required from Pearson). Item content emphasizes somatic symptoms, which overlap with panic and can inflate scores in medically ill respondents.

Original citation

Beck, A. T., Epstein, N., Brown, G., Steer, R. A. (1988). An inventory for measuring clinical anxiety: Psychometric properties. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56(6), 893-897.

https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.56.6.893

This instrument is licensed. Folio does not distribute its item wording — obtain permission from the copyright holder before using it in your study.

Questions researchers ask

What does the BAI measure?

A 21-item self-report measure of the severity of anxiety symptoms over the past week, designed to discriminate anxiety from depression.

How many items does the BAI have?

The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) has 21 items.

Is the BAI free to use?

The BAI is licensed. You must obtain permission from the copyright holder before using it in a study — Folio does not distribute its item wording without that permission.

Is the BAI reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.92, test–retest reliability of 0.75. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the BAI, and how do I cite it?

Beck, A. T., Epstein, N., Brown, G., Steer, R. A. (1988). An inventory for measuring clinical anxiety: Psychometric properties. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56(6), 893-897. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.56.6.893

Permission required

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Library entry verified July 2026. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.