Psychometric Properties of the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA) in a Sample of University Students in Sweden

Existing measures for examining fear of public speaking are somewhat limited in content and there is a need for scales that assess a broader area including cognitive, behavioral, and physiological dimensions of the fear. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA) in a sample of university students (n, 273). Participants completed the PRPSA and measures of depression, social and general anxiety, and quality of life. A reduced version of the PRPSA, the PRPSA-18, was found to demonstrate satisfactory internal consistency as well as discriminant and convergent validity. The PRPSA-18 was associated with two solid factors, “Anticipatory anxiety and physiological symptoms during speech performance,” and “Lack of control during speech performance.” A PRPSA-18 score of 58 was found to discriminate participants with higher and lower fear of public speaking. It is concluded that the shorter and more easily administered PRPSA-18 is a credible option for assessing fear of public speaking among university students.