Psychometric validation of the Portuguese version of the Measure of Anxiety in Selection Interviews

Feeling anxiety in a job interview is common. It is important to have a valid, reliable, and culturally adapted measure, enabling cross‐cultural comparisons. Our main goal was to examine the psychometric properties of the Measure of Anxiety in Selection Interviews (MASI) in a Portuguese sample, since no similar measure is available in the Portuguese language. The MASI was developed to capture five dimensions of anxiety: Communication, appearance, social, performance, and behavior. We tested 436 participants (337 women; aged 18–61 years old) with and without prior job interview experience. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated an adequate fit for the five‐factor solution. Good internal and test–retest reliability (two weeks between assessments) was observed. The MASI‐P positively correlated with social anxiety/fear, but negatively correlated with age, number of previous job interviews, and perceived performance on the last job interview. Overall, the use of MASI‐P can be advantageous in job interview training, research, and employment processes.