Introduction
Literature Review
Length of Questionnaires
Abbreviated Questionnaires
The Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS)
The Current Study
Method
Participants
Procedure
Measures
Data Analysis
Results
Development of the SCAS-S
Subscale | Item content | General | Group 1 (SEP) | Group 2 (SAD) | Group 3 (OCD) | Group 4 (PD) | Group 5 (SP) | Group 6 (GAD) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
separation anxiety disorder
| ||||||||
Fear of being alone | .46 | .37 | ||||||
Fear of being away from parents | .54 | .57 | ||||||
Worry over family members | .56 | .32 | ||||||
Fear of sleeping alone | .49 | |||||||
Trouble going to school | .64 | |||||||
Fear of staying away overnight | .45 | .40 | ||||||
social phobia
| ||||||||
Fear of tests at school | .48 | .43 | ||||||
Fear of public facilities | .41 | |||||||
Fear of embarrassment | .50 | .39 | ||||||
Worry over school performance | .52 | .43 | ||||||
Worry what other people think | .63 | |||||||
Fear of speaking | .42 | |||||||
obsessive-compulsory disorder
| ||||||||
Repeated checking behavior | .40 | |||||||
Get rid of bad/silly thoughts | .53 | .36 | ||||||
Magic thoughts rituals | .53 | |||||||
Compulsive behaviors | .40 | .48 | ||||||
Disturbed by bad thoughts | .64 | |||||||
Magic behavior rituals | .53 | .39 | ||||||
panic attacks and agoraphobia
| ||||||||
Sudden trouble breathing | .51 | .46 | ||||||
Shaking for no reason | .50 | .52 | ||||||
Fear of public transports | .45 | |||||||
Fear of crowding | .53 | .31 | ||||||
Scared for no reason | .59 | .31 | ||||||
Dizziness for no reason | .53 | .43 | ||||||
Fast heartbeats for no reason | .54 | .49 | ||||||
Worry over becoming scared | .65 | |||||||
Fear of small places | .44 | .36 | ||||||
physical injury fears
| ||||||||
Fear of darkness | .43 | .32 | ||||||
Fear of dogs | ||||||||
Fear of doctors | .46 | |||||||
Fear of heights | .42 | .56 | ||||||
Fear of insects | .31 | .32 | ||||||
generalized anxiety disorder
| ||||||||
Overall worry | .56 | .33 | ||||||
Funny feeling in stomach | .48 | .38 | ||||||
Overall fear | .56 | |||||||
Heartbeats when agonizing | .50 | |||||||
Worry over myself | .70 | .34 | ||||||
Shaky when agonizing | .64 | |||||||
Explained total variance | 26.3% | 3.2% | 3.4% | 2.8% | 3.7% | 3.4% | 2.4% | |
Explained common variance | 58.1% | 7.0% | 7.5% | 6.3% | 8.1% | 7.6% | 5.3% | |
Omega Hierarchical (ω
h
) | .87 | .27 | .26 | .27 | .30 | .28 | .18 |
The SCAS-S Factor Structure
Subscale | Item content | General | Group 1 (SEP) | Group 2 (SAD) | Group 3 (PD) | Group 4 (SP) | Group 5 (GAD) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SEP
| |||||||
Fear of being alone |
.44
|
.32
| −.01 | −.10 | .28 | .13 | |
Fear of being away from parents |
.58
|
.41
| .05 | .13 | .11 | .09 | |
Fear of staying away overnight |
.46
|
.67
| .04 | .05 | .03 | .03 | |
SAD
| |||||||
Fear of tests at school |
.55
| .05 |
.66
| .01 | .01 | −.02 | |
Fear of embarrassment |
.49
| −.09 | .26 | −.01 | .05 | .28 | |
Worry over school performance |
.61
| −.04 |
.33
| .07 | .04 | .25 | |
PD
| |||||||
Sudden trouble breathing |
.55
| .00 | −.02 |
.58
| −.06 | .02 | |
Shaking for no reason |
.62
| .07 | .10 |
.50
| .04 | −.06 | |
Scared for no reason |
.70
| .03 | .00 |
.35
| .18 | .15 | |
Dizziness for no reason |
.60
| −.13 | −.02 |
.47
| .08 | .10 | |
Fast heartbeats for no reason |
.59
| .10 | .02 |
.55
| −.02 | −.03 | |
SP
| |||||||
Fear of darkness |
.54
| .05 | .02 | .04 |
.43
| .05 | |
Fear of heights |
.49
| .12 | .04 | .07 |
.32
| .03 | |
Fear of insects |
.31
| .02 | .12 | −.03 |
.40
| −.15 | |
Fear of small places |
.45
| .00 | −.04 | .11 |
.31
| .07 | |
GAD
| |||||||
Overall worry |
.62
| −.12 | .22 | .08 | .11 |
.31
| |
Worry over family members |
.57
| .22 | .03 | .01 | −.03 |
.47
| |
Get rid of bad/silly thoughts |
.59
| −.04 | .08 | .14 | .07 |
.33
| |
Worry over myself |
.62
| .09 | −.02 | .10 | .07 |
.42
| |
Explained total variance | 30.5% | 4.5% | 3.7% | 6.9% | 3.7% | 4.4% | |
Explained common variance | 56.8% | 8.3% | 6.9% | 12.8% | 6.9% | 8.2% | |
Omega Hierarchical (ω
h
) | .83 | .35 | .28 | .35 | .27 | .24 | |
Omega (ω) | .93 | .75 | .71 | .90 | .68 | .82 | |
Cronbach’s Alpha (α) | .88 | .63 | .70 | .82 | .59 | .75 |
The SCAS-S Reliability and Dimensionality
Gender Differences in the SCAS-S
Scale | Scores | Total Sample | Girls | Boys | Girls vs. Boys | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
M
|
Sd
|
M
|
Sd
|
M
|
Sd
|
t-value
|
df
|
p-value
| ||
SCAS-S | Total anxiety scores | 14.7 | 8.6 | 17.2 | 8.9 | 12.0 | 7.3 | 6.09 | 366.5 | <.001 |
Separation anxiety disorder | 1.9 | 1.6 | 2.2 | 1.7 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 4.58 | 367.6 | <.001 | |
Social anxiety disorder | 2.8 | 1.9 | 3.3 | 2.0 | 2.3 | 1.6 | 5.48 | 363.1 | <.001 | |
Panic disorder | 2.2 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 2.9 | 1.7 | 2.3 | 3.25 | 363.8 | .001 | |
Specific phobias | 3.8 | 2.6 | 4.5 | 2.6 | 2.9 | 2.2 | 6.45 | 368.5 | <.001 | |
Generalized anxiety disorder | 4.1 | 2.5 | 4.5 | 2.5 | 3.6 | 2.3 | 3.43 | 368.9 | <.001 |
Classification Accuracy
ADIS-C/P diagnoses (n = yes/no) | SCAS | SCAS-S |
---|---|---|
AUC [95% CI] | AUC [95% CI] | |
Any anxiety disorder (n = 21/84)a
| .78 [.66, .88] | .78 [.66, .88] |
Separation Anxiety Disorder (n = 48/45)b
| .76 [.66, .85] | .77 [.67, .86] |
Social Anxiety Disorder (n = 37/56) b
| .78 [.68, .87] | .76 [.67, .86] |
Specific Phobia (n = 76/17) b
| .85 [.75, .95] | .80 [.71, .90] |
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (n = 41/52) b
| .63 [.52, .75] | .61 [.50, .73] |
Panic Disorder (n = 6/87) b
| .70 [.50, .90] | .61 [.32, .90] |
Convergent and Divergent Validity
SCAS-S | CSR | ADIS Diagnoses | SCAS-P | SDQ-Emo | SDQ-Peer | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SCAS | .95*** | .45*** | .41*** | .53*** | .38*** | .10 |
SCAS-S | – | .46*** | .41*** | .49*** | .34** | .08 |
CSRa
| – | .94*** | .60*** | .54*** | .30** | |
ADIS Diagnoses | – | .55*** | .55*** | .27* | ||
SCAS-P | – | .54*** | .33** | |||
SDQ-Emo | – | .46** |