Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Validation of the Public Speaking Anxiety Scale (PSAS) for Portuguese Nursing Students

Abstract

Public speaking anxiety (PSA) represents a significant challenge, with a notable impact on the development of technical-scientific and communication skills. Based on a quantitative, cross-sectional design, the present study aims to carry out the cross-cultural adaptation of the Portuguese version of the Public Speaking Anxiety Scale (PSAS), evaluating its psychometric properties and structural validity through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). A convenience sample of 348 nursing students from a higher education institution in the Lisbon region was used. The PSAS is a multidimensional instrument composed of 17 items, which evaluates the cognitive, physiological, and behavioral components of the PSA. The adaptation process followed the robust translation method developed by a panel of experts, ensuring semantic equivalence and internal consistency (n = 10; Content Validity Index Global 0.95). The results indicate that the mean PSAS score is 48.02 ± 13.03 (range 20–33). The cognitive dimension obtained the highest mean scores, followed by the physiological and behavioral dimensions (22.86 ± 6.13; 14.99 ± 4.26; 10.17 ± 3.68, respectively). In conclusion, the Portuguese PSAS is a valid and reliable instrument to systematically assess public speaking anxiety in Portuguese nursing students and contributes to the growing literature on culturally adapted measures of communication anxiety.