Psychometric Properties of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED): A Replication Study

doi:10.1097/00004583-199910000-00011

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

Volume 38, Issue 10, October 1999, Pages 1230-1236

https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-199910000-00011 Get rights and content

ABSTRACT

Objective

To replicate and extend work on the psychometric properties of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED), a child and parent self-report instrument used to screen for children with anxiety disorders.

Method

The 41-item version of the SCARED was administered to a new sample of 190 outpatient children and adolescents and 166 parents. The internal consistency, discriminant, and convergent validity were assessed. In addition, using discriminant function analysis, a briefer version of the SCARED was developed.

Results

Using item analyses and factor analyses on the 41-item version, 5 factors were obtained: panic/somatic, generalized anxiety, separation anxiety, social phobia, and school phobia. In general, the total score and each of the 5 factors for both the child and parent SCARED demonstrated good internal consistency and discriminant validity (both between anxiety and depressive and disruptive disorders and within anxiety disorders). A reduced version of the SCARED yielded 5 items and showed similar psychometrics to the full SCARED.

Conclusions

In a new sample, the authors replicated their initial psychometric findings that the SCARED is a reliable and valid instrument to screen for childhood anxiety disorders in clinical settings. Furthermore, pending future research, the 5-item SCARED appears to be a promising brief screening inventory for anxiety disorders in epidemiological studies.

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: This study was supported in part by the Child and Adolescent Developmental Psychopathology Research Center for Early-Onset Affective Disorders (MH55123) and Fluoxetine for Anxious Children (MH 53681–03). The authors thank Therese Deiseroth for her assistance in the preparation of this manuscript.

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ARTICLEPsychometric Properties of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED): A Replication Study

ABSTRACT

Objective

Method

Results

Conclusions

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Behav Ther

J Am Acad Child Psychiatry

J Anxiety Disord

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Pers Individ Differences

Pers Individ Differences

J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry

J Am Acad Child Psychiatry

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Int J Biomed Comput

Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist and the Revised Child Behavior Profile

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV)

Depressive comorbidity in children and adolescents: empirical, theoretical, and methodological issues

Am J Psychiatry

ARTICLE
Psychometric Properties of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED): A Replication Study